Cereal Evolution Timeline

Breakfast cereal, once a simple staple derived from grains, has evolved significantly throughout history. Initially, cereals like porridge or gruel required cooking in water or milk, a time-consuming process that demanded attention and resources. However, with the changing needs and lifestyles of society, breakfast cereal underwent a transformation to become the convenient and varied meal option we know today.

During the American Civil War, Union soldiers recognized the value of hot breakfast cereals, especially when on the move or facing supply shortages. Resourceful cooks improvised with available ingredients to create makeshift dishes like "bully soup," concocted from watery cornmeal and crumbled hardtack. These early instances highlighted the importance of portable, easy-to-prepare foods in sustaining troops during challenging times.

The development of precooked breakfast foods gained momentum in the 19th century, partly fueled by a growing interest in dietary diversity, particularly among certain vegetarians. Movements such as the Seventh-Day Adventist Church emphasized wholesome living and vegetarianism, inspiring innovations in food processing. Moreover, as digestive issues became prevalent among many Americans due to insufficient dietary fiber, there arose a need for easily digestible yet nutritious meal options.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg played a pivotal role in the evolution of breakfast cereal in the 19th century. Experimenting extensively in Battle Creek, Michigan, Kellogg developed various precooked cereal products, including granola and corn flakes. These innovations marked significant milestones in the history of breakfast cereal, offering convenient and nutritious alternatives to traditional cooked grains. Dr. James C. Jackson's granula, likely the first precooked cereal invented in 1863, laid the groundwork for Kellogg's later creations.

Kellogg's cereal products gained widespread commercial success, albeit undergoing changes in their nutritional profile over time. Initially marketed as wholesome, whole-grain foods, competition in the industry led to the inclusion of sugar and other additives, particularly to appeal to children. This shift reflected evolving consumer preferences and the prioritization of taste and convenience in breakfast choices.

As concerns regarding the nutritional content of cereals emerged, manufacturers responded by fortifying their products with additional nutrients in the 1970s. However, the marketing tactics employed, particularly those targeting young children with sugary, nutrient-poor cereals, faced criticism. In response, major corporations like Kellogg's and General Mills pledged to halt advertising cereals that did not meet US dietary standards for children in 2007, signaling a growing awareness of the importance of promoting healthier eating habits.

Today, ready-to-eat cereals made from wheat, corn, or oats dominate the market, constituting over 75% of breakfast cereal consumption in the United States. Despite their evolution from humble beginnings as cooked grains to convenient, packaged products, breakfast cereals continue to serve as a convenient and popular choice for morning meals, catering to diverse tastes and dietary preferences.
Cereal Evolution Timeline

Evolution of Breakfast Cereal in United States

In 1863, James Caleb Jackson, a religious conservative vegetarian, doctor, and advocate for health reform, introduced the first manufactured breakfast cereal. He created a product called "granula" by drying and hardening graham flour dough, requiring an overnight soak in milk to become edible. During this period, John Harvey Kellogg, also a religious vegetarian and sanitarium owner, presented his own version of "granula," which he later named "granola" to avoid legal conflicts with Jackson.

Amid increasing competition within the cereal industry, Pillsbury made its entry in 1897 with Vitos, a cereal made from wheat. Simultaneously, The Quaker Oats Company brought innovation to the market during the 1910s with the promotion of Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat, achieved through the expansion of rice grains under pressure.

In 1936, Ralston Purina introduced Shredded Ralston, an early precursor to Wheat Chex. This product underwent a name change to Wheat Chex in 1950. Following suit, General Mills joined the competition with Wheaties in the mid-1920s and Kix in the 1930s.

The period after World War II saw a shift in cereal advertising towards children. General Mills capitalized on this trend with Wheaties and Kix, while Kellogg's played a significant role by launching Frosted Flakes and their memorable mascot, Tony the Tiger. This marked the beginning of a new era in television advertising. Notably, Frosted Flakes was one of the pioneering cereals to feature a cartoon character mascot, paving the way for others like the Trix Rabbit and Lucky the Leprechaun. The subsequent baby boom further drove cereal consumption, with the sugar content of cereals becoming a prominent selling point.
Evolution of Breakfast Cereal in United States

Dr James C. Jackson and breakfast cereal

The modern breakfast cereals are entirely precooked and eaten in cold milk. The first precooked cereal was probably invented by Dr. James C. Jackson at Dansville, New York.

In 1863, Dr. James C. Jackson a vegetarian who operated the Dansville Sanitarium in Dansville, New York, advocated eating healthy food. He took graham flour baked it and broke it up into small pieces.

This was the first breakfast cereal and he called it granula. Jackson’s granula experiment was the beginning of a new concept in breakfast foods that would eventually change the way many Americans started the day.

Jackson’s health food was made by rolling a coarse whole meal dough into thin sheets which were baked until they were hard and brittle loaves. The crisp cookie-like material was broken and ground into small chunks, the chunks were again baked and finally fragmented into small granules.

The resulting coarse nuggets had to be reconstituted with liquid for a minimum of twenty minutes or preferably overnight before they were eaten.
Dr James C. Jackson and breakfast cereal

History of Pop-Tarts

In 1963 Post Cereals released their first product of breakfast cereals, Country Squares to the public. This was part of long term goal set by Post, which was to develop non cereal products after World War II that did not require refrigeration.

To counter Post Cereal’s Country Squares Kellogg came up with product that was initially called a Fruit Scone. It was designed to expand the range of items that could be cooked in a toaster.

The name was changed to Pop-Tart, which was inspired by the pop-art movement. Pop-Tarts have sugary fillings, which are sealed inside two layers of a pastry crust. Pop-Tarts were sold in the grocery stores in Cleveland, Ohio, Kellogg’s instructed store managers to stock the Pop-Tarts in the baked goods or baking supplies aisle and not in the cereal aisle, because they did not want Pop-Tarts to be substituted for cereal.

Post Cereals’ Country Squares failed to take off, but Pop-Tarts sakes were extremely successful when they were released in 1964. Pop-Tarts rapidly grew popular because of television commercial for them that featured a talking cartoon named Milton.

Over the years, some of the delicious flavors of Pop-Tarts have included Blueberry, Cherry Strawberry, Grape, Raspberry, Apple Cinnamon, Brown Sugar, Chocolate Fudge, Vanilla Crème, S’mores, and Peanut Butter and Jelly.

As of 2011, Kellogg produced thirty flavors of Pop-Tarts. The most popular flavors are frosted strawberry and frosted brown sugar cinnamon.
History of Pop-Tarts 

Cap’n Crunch cereal

Introduced in 1963 by Quaker Oats, the popular breakfast treat had kid appeal written all over it.  Cap’n Crunch was created when kid’s cereals were flourishing and for some reason it made sense that a cartoon naval captain would sell a breakfast food.

Pamela Low who developed the original taste of the cereal based it in recipe her grandma made. She recalling a recipe of brown sugar and butter her grandmother Luella Low served over rice at her home in Derry, New Hampshire.

It’s advertised with amusing animated TV spots created by Jay Ward and starring Cap’n Horatio Crunch - the fun loving, blue-uniformed sea captain of the S.S. Guppy.

Despite its unusual taste, the Cap’n has inspired more spin-offs than Happy Days. Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries debuted in 1967, followed by Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Bitter Crunch in 1969, and in what may be a sign of the apocalypse, Cap’n Crunch’s Chocó Donuts in 2002.

The cereal logo character Cap’n Crunch was based on an actual figure from history, Captain James Crunch, an infamous slave trader who as brutally murdered in a brothel in 1792.
Captain Crunch cereal

History of buckwheat

The name ‘buckwheat’ comes from the Dutch word bockweit, which is indicative of the resemblance to beech the tree seeds and the wheat-like character of buckwheat flour.

Buckwheat is a native of Central Asia. Buckwheat is thought to have been domesticated in China about 1000 BC and reached Japan by 722 AD.

Its heartland of cultivation is the mountainous are stretching from northern India through Nepal and China to Korea and Japan.

Japanese buckwheat noodle

Buckwheat was cultivated in the steppes north of the Black Sea by the Iron Age (500 BC). It was introduced to Europe through Turkey and Russian during the 14th century, then to England and the US during the 17th century.

Buckwheat was introduced into the United States by the Dutch during the 1600s. Poles and Russians have used buckwheat as an important main ingredient in their traditional fare for many generations.

At the beginning of the 12th century, buckwheat was produced in significant areas in Russia (2,600,000 hectares), in France (335,000 hectares), and in Poland (290,000 hectares).

Currently it is cultivated worldwide on about more than 3 million hectares.
History of buckwheat

History of Wheaties

Wheaties was discovered when in 1921, a health clinician, in Minneapolis was mixing a batch of bran gruel for his patients while he spilled some of the mix on a hot stove.

The gruel crackled and sizzled turned into a crisp flake. The Washburn Crosby Company (later changed name to General Mills) bought the rights to the cereal.  The company spent three years developing the product and introduced Wheaties breakfast cereal in 1924.

In 1924 General Mills first advertised Wheaties as the Breakfast of Champions, thereby tying cold cereal to star athletes.

Wheaties made advertising history as the first product to feature a singing commercial on network radio. Its first airing took place on Christmas Eve 1926. Sales increased in areas where the people heard the commercial.

At the 1939 Major League All-Star Game, forty sox of the events fifty-one players endorsed the cereal. Wheaties was marketed as an accompaniment to physical exercise leading to the goal of physical fitness. Most early Wheaties champions were men, with the swimmer Esther Williams a notable exception in 1959.
History of Wheaties

General Mills – American Fortune 500 corporation

In 1856 Cadwallader C. Washburn opened a flour mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He named the company as the Minneapolis Mill Company, which began to mill four in 1866.

In 1880, after winning the gold, silver and bronze medals at the first International Millers Exhibition, the company changed the brand name to Gold Medal.

When John Crosby joined as partner in Washburn’s business in 1877 the company changed its name to the Washburn Crosby Company.

In 1921, the company introduced Betty Crocker and it was to become one of the most successful brand names ever introduced by an American food company.

In 1928 the Washburn Crosby Company introduced a cereal, Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes. Its name was shorted to Wheaties.

In the same year, under President James Ford Bell, the Washburn Crosby Company merged with a number of leading regional mills to become General Mills, Inc.

After World War II, consumers demanded products that required less time to prepare. In response, General Mills introduced Betty Corker cake mixes in 1947 and presweetened cereals in 1954.

General Mills introduce many new cereals, including Trix (1954), Lucky Charms (1963), and Honey Nut Cheerios (1979).

In addition to cereal, General Mills has also introduced many snack foods and junk foods, such as Bugles (1965) and Milk ‘n Cereal Bars.

The company diversified into industries such as toys and fashion in the 1960s but by the 1990s was again delaying exclusively with consumer foods.

General Mills acquired one if its chief rivals, Pillsbury Co., in 2001. Its headquarters are in Minneapolis.
General Mills – American Fortune 500 corporation

Invention of precooked cereal by James Jackson

The first ready-to-eat breakfast cereal was probably ‘Granula’ precooked dry cereal. It had been made since 1863 by Dr. James Caleb Jackson, well-known as slavery abolitionist, at Dansville, New York.

James Jackson (1811-1895), a vegetarian operated the Dansville Sanitarium in Dansville, New York, advocated eating healthy food.

He prepared heavy dough out of Graham flour and water. He baked slowly until the loaves were very dry, before broke these up into small chunks. Then he baked them again, and finally ground the brittle chunks into smaller pieces.

He named this preparation ‘Granula’ which closely resembles Post’s Grape Nuts, and it was served for breakfast after soaking overnight in milk. Granula is the great grandfather of today’s granola and also predecessor of modern cereal.

John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) visited Jackson’s sanatorium and like the granula. Upon his return, Kellogg duplicated Jackson’s formula and began selling it. Evidently Jackson threatened to sue him, so Kellogg changed the formula in 1881 and called his product granola.

Within eight years Kellogg’s Sanitas Food Company was selling two tons of the cereal per week.
Invention of precooked cereal by James Jackson 

Ancient cereal

Archeobotanical data shows that the first domesticated wheat species were einkorn (Triticum monococcum ssp. monococcum) and emmer (Triticum turgidum ssp, dicoccon). These evolved from their wild relatives T. boeticum and T. dicoccoides about 10 000 years ago.

Both species were the staple food of the human population until the end of the Bronze Age when naked Triticum species became dominant in agriculture lands.

The studies shows comparing ancient human remains (and foodstuffs that surrounded them) from all parts of the globe show that farming practices did not start from one community and spread; instead, these ancient farming communities began independently.

The wild cereal grains abounded and agriculture developed at the hands of Neolithic women who were most likely responsible for the first planting and harvesting of hand-sown crop.

The first recorded farming communities in the ninth millennium BC were found in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now called Iraq. These farmers were quite sophisticated and were in their way the founders of cereal technology.

They grew wheat and other cereal grains (as well as keeping livestock) and used quite complicated irrigation systems to maintain their crops.

Through the fourth millennium BC during most ancient Egyptians in the Early Dynastic Period and later periods, villages became increasingly dependent on the cultivation of emmer wheat and barley, which was increasingly successful in the environment of the Nile floodplain in Egypt.

In Roman times its cereal exports were of such importance to Italy that the trade enjoyed the peculiar protection of the state and the general imperial system of provincial government received special modifications in its adaptation to Egypt.

Record shows that from 2300 to 1750 BC, wheat, barley, and rice were grown by inhabitants of northern India. In all these ancient societies cereals continued to be among the preferred crops right through to the Egyptians and on to the modern farms of time.

Amaranth the pseudocereal was eaten by hunter-gatherers in both North and South America before the domestication of crops. Amaranth, a pseudocereal, was cultivated first (from 7000 to 5000 BC), but by around 2500 BC maize was first domesticated.

The plants were domesticated independently in the Andes.

Later still, around AD 250 to 1600, maize was hybridized to increase the yields by Maya-Aztec civilization. These people were excellent farmers, who developed methods for tilling dry soil to retain moisture and also built the irrigation canal and made artificial gardens that floated on water.

The agriculture implements used by Inca’s farmers were few and simple. A hoe with a bronze plate was used for general cultivation. The grain were principle staple crops in the higher valleys.

The people of Inca Empire lived in the inhospitable Andes in around AD 1200. They cultivated maize on terraces with intricate irrigation and drainage systems.

Ancient cereal

History of breakfast cereal Kellogg

Food History
The Kellogg brothers were part of the first health movement in America that warned about the dangers of fatty, protein rich foods. Instead, they advocated a diet based primarily on vegetables, grains and fiber. Their devotion to this dietary regime gave rise to the Kellogg’s company and the large consumption of cereals that exists today.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) was a Seventh-day Adventist and vegetarian. He recommended a plain diet for medical and moral reasons. His belief was that a diet high in fat and protein, white bread, coffee and tea, as well as the use of tobacco, could not produce a person chaste in thought.

Dr. Kellogg was appointed the superintendent of a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. He believed the average invalid was suffering from bad intestinal flora and needed less protein and more roughage in his diet. He placed the patients on a strict and bland diet based on numerous vegetable and nut products that he developed, the most famous being a flaked wheat cereal called Granose. Granose’s popularity was limited partially because it, like many of his vegetable creations, was insipid and tasteless. Constant experimenting with various recipes led to the invention in 1902 of a cereal based on flakes of corn and flavored with barley malt. The infamous Corn Flakes were born.

Will Keith Kellogg (1860-1951), better known as W.K. Kellogg, was the younger brother of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and a clerk in the Battle Creek sanitarium. He assisted his brother in the search for new cereal products to support the vegetarian diet they both endorsed. W. K. Kellogg is the most famous since it is he who began the Kellogg’s company in 1906. He relentlessly set forth to package, advertises, market, and sell their cereal products.

In 1924 W.K. expanded the business to Australia. Through the Great Depression, while many firms were shrinking, he increased his advertising and continued to expand the business. In 1938 he began selling his products in England. Today, Kellogg’s products are manufactured in 19 countries and sold to more than 160 countries around the globe.
Food History

History of Wheat

Food History

Wheat is an ancient grain. Thought to have originated in southwestern Asia, it has been consumed as a food for more than 12,000 years.

It played an important role of religious significance and was part of the sacred rituals of many cultures. Greek, Roman, Sumerian and Finnish mythology had gods and goddesses of wheat. This exceptionally nutritious grain is still considered to be sacred in some areas of China.

Wheat was not native to the Western Hemisphere and was only introduced here in the late 15th century when Columbus came to the New World. While wheat was grown in the United States during the early colonial years, it was not until the late 19th century that wheat cultivation flourished, owing to the importation of an especially hardy strain of wheat known as Turkey red wheat, which was brought over by Russian immigrants who settled in Kansas.

As rice has been the dietary staple of Asia, wheat has served this role for many of other regions of the world. It is estimated that approximately one-third of the world's people depend upon wheat for their nourishment.

The collection of wheat offered man a number of advantages. Grains could be stored without spoiling. They could be stocked or carried from place to place and prepared in any number of ways. Grain could be traded for other essentials or comforts, eventually leading to the development of commerce and a means of supplying food for city populations from distant fields.

Today, the largest commercial producers of wheat include the Russian Federation, the United States, China, India, France and Canada.

Food History

History of Oat

Food History

Oats did not become important to man as early as wheat or barley. Oats probably per­sisted as a weed‑like plant in other cereals for centuries prior to being cultivated by itself. Some authorities believe that our present cultivated oats developed as a mutation from wild oats. They think this may have taken place in Asia Minor or south­eastern Europe not long before the birth of Christ.

Probably the oldest known oat grains were found in Egypt among remains of the 12th Dynasty, which was about 2,000 B.C. These probably were weeds and not actually cultivated by the Egyptians. The oldest known cultivated oats were found in caves in Switzerland that are believed to belong to the Bronze Age.

The history of oats is somewhat clouded because there are so many different species and subspecies, which makes identification of old remains very difficult. The chief modern center of greatest variety of forms is in Asia Minor where most all subspecies are in contact with each other. Many feel that the area with the greatest diversity of types is most likely where a particular plant originated.

Oats were first brought to North America with other grains in 1602 and planted on the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts. As early as 1786, George Washington sowed 580 acres to oats. By the 1860s and 1870s, the westward shift of oat acreage in the United States had moved into the middle and upper Mississippi Valley, which is its major area of production today.

Oats are chiefly a European and North American crop. These areas have the cool, moist climate to which oats are best adapted. Russia, Canada, the United States, Finland, and Poland are the leading oat producing countries. Oats are adapted to a wide range of soil types, thus temperature and moisture conditions are the usual limiting factors as to where oats are grown. Perhaps no other country uses oats as much in their cropping system as does Scotland. Some winter oats are produced in the United States, but most are spring oats produced mainly in the north central states.

During the 1940s and 1950s, the five leading states in production usually were Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, and South Dakota. By the 1960's, the main oat producing area began moving somewhat north and westward. In 2000, the rank of states in order of production was Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Iowa. Iowa acreage peaked at about 6.4 million acres in 1950 and slumped to 270,000 acres, of which only 180,000 acres were harvested, by 2000. The more profitable crop, soybean, has replaced the oat acreage.
Food History

History of Breakfast Cereal

Breakfast cereal, a food made from grain, commonly eaten in the morning. The oldest type of cereal, known as porridge or gruel, requires cooking in water or milk.

They are called processed foods because they go through several processes to turn them into breakfast cereal.

During the American Civil War, Union soldiers were glad to get a hot breakfast cereals, especially when they were in the march or cut off from supply trains.

Cooks used foodstuff on hand to make, panada, a hot breakfast gruel affectionately known as ‘bully soup,’ which the main ingredients were watery corn meal and crumbled hardtack, both of which were standard issue.

The original motivation for the development of precooked breakfast foods seems to have been the desire of some vegetarian to add more variety to their diets.

Health food movement emerged in the nineteenth century United States, in a particular among followers of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church which emphasized a vegetarian lifestyle.

At that time most Americans did not consume enough dietary fiber and many suffered from digestive disorders as a result.

The early history of cereal breakfast originated out of the an interest in health foods that can be traced to the 1830s, and specifically to the experiments carried out from the the 1860s by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the pioneer nutritionist, at the sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan.

The modern breakfast cereals, however, are entirely precooked and eaten in cold milk. The first precooked cereal was probably invented in 1863 by Dr. James C. Jackson at Dansville, New York.

Jackson’s health food as made by rolling a coarse whole meal dough into thin sheets which were baked until they were hard and brittle loaves.

He broke up hardened loaves of unleavened whole grain bread into little pieces and served it for breakfast after soaking the brittle chunks overnight in milk. Jackson named this mixture granula.

Ganula, was the first cold breakfast cereal. It consisted id a twice baked wholemeal biscuit ground into crumbs, which had to be soaked on milk or water to make it even vaguely palatable.

In 1877, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg created a similar cereal called granola, but not until his invention of corn flakes in 1902 did cereal become a commercial success. At first, most cereals were marketed as pure, whole-grain foods.

In 1894 Kellogg created the first flaked cereal, Granose and in 1898, the corn flake.

Eventually, however, competition resulted in the addition of sugar and other food additives and in marketing campaigns directed at children, such as the inclusion of a premium or toy in the box.

By late 1905, the corn flake business was booming and other cereal manufacturers had gotten into this line. In January 1906, Post Cereals introduced a new version of the corn flakes.

It was C. W Post, the founder of Post Cereals who first clearly comprehend that convenience and flavor were more forceful and more widely appreciated advantages than were the healthfulness and vegetable origin previously relied upon as selling points by producers of these foods.

In the 1970s, as cereals came under attack for their lack of nutritive value, many manufacturers began adding nutrients. Unlike most other grain products, breakfast cereals have shown a steady increase in per capita consumption in the United States throughout the 20th cent.

In the early first twenty century, cereal manufacturers came under scrutiny for their marketing practices. The tendency to aim advertisements for high sugar, low nutrient cereals directly at young children was particular criticized.

In response, in 2007 major corporations such as Kellogg’s and General Mills agreed to stop creating child-focused advertising for products that do not meet US dietary standards.

Apart from breads, cereal is the most common form in which Americans consume grain.

Now over 75% of breakfast cereals are ready to eat type made from wheat, corn, or oats .
History of Breakfast Cereal