15 Cereals and Cereal Products
15.1 Foreword
15.1.1 Introduction
Cereal products are amongst the most important
staple foods of mankind. Nutrients provided by
bread consumption in industrial countries meet
close to 50% of the daily requirement of carbo-
hydrates, one third of the proteins and 50–60%
of vitamin B. Moreover, cereal products are also
a source of minerals and trace elements.
The major cereals are wheat, rye, rice, barley, mil-
let and oats. Wheat and rye have a special role
since only they are suitable for bread-making.
15.1.2 Origin
The genealogy of the cereals begins with wild
grasses (Poaceae), as shown in Fig. 15.1. Barley
(Hordeum vulgare), probably one of the first
cereals grown systematically, was known as early
as 5000 B.C. in Egypt and Babylon. Also, the
bearded wheat cultivars from the groups Einkorn
(Triticum monococcum) and Emmer (T. dic-
occum), with diploid (genome formula: AA,
2n = 14) and tetraploid (AABB, 2n = 28) sets of
chromosomes, (the chromosome number of the
wheat genome is n = 7), were found among culti-
vated plants that were widely spread in temperate
Fig. 15.1. Evolutionary development (phylogeny) of cereals
H.-D. Belitz · W. Grosch · P. Schieberle, Food Chemistry
© Springer 2009
zones of Euroasia during the neolithic period.
These cultivars are becoming extinct. Only the
durum form of Emmer (T. turgidum durum, hard
wheat, AABB), at 10% of the total wheat grown,
has a significant role. The hexaploid (AABBDD,
2n = 42) wheats derived from spelt are grown
worldwide as bread cereals. The A genome of
the spelts is closely related to that of Einkorn
(T. monococcum). The origin of the B genome is
unknown. It probably comes from species of the
genus Aegilops and the D genome from Aegilops
squarrosa.
Two varieties are derived from the spelts, bare
wheat (soft wheat, T. aestivum) and bearded spelt
(T. spelta). The low yield and the additional de-
husking procedure led to the fact that soft wheat
(called “wheat” below) gained more acceptance
than spelt. As late as the middle of the 19th
century, 15–20 times more spelt than wheat was
grown in Southern Germany. Since the 1980s,
however, demand for spelt has increased, espe-
cially in the natural food market. To compensate
for the disadvantages with respect to the yield
and the baking properties, wheat cultivars are
crossed with the spelt. Such varieties differ from
pure spelt in their gliadin pattern, which can be
determined by HPLC (cf. 15.2.1.3.1).
Rice (Oryza sativa) and corn (Zea mays) have
been cultivated for 5000 years, first in tropical
Southeast Asia and then in Central and South
670
 15.1 Foreword 671

America. Cereals designated as millet have had quantity (Table 15.2). Wheat surplus producers
a role from antiquity in subtropical and tropical are the USA, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and
regions of Asia and Africa. True millet from the France. In the Federal Republic of Germany
subfamilies Eragrostoideae and Panicoideae, to (FRG), winter wheat (92%) and spring wheat
which many regionally important cultivars belong (8%) are both cultivated. The rise of cereal pro-
(for instance, Eragrostis tef, Eleusine coracan, duction in the world is shown in Table 15.3. The
Echinochloa frumentacea, Pennisetum glaucum, yields per hectare vary greatly from one country
Setaria italica), is distinguished from sorghum to another (Table 15.4). Due to an intensive
(Sorghum bicolor), which belongs to the subfam- effort in breeding and crop production programs,
ily Andropogonoideae and is cultivated world- the yields per hectare in the FRG are very high
wide. and are surpassed by only a few countries, e. g.,
Rye (Secale cereale) and oats (Avena sativa) are Holland. The FRG utilized 25.7 × 106 tons of
so-called secondary culture plants. Initially hardy cereals in 1976/77, of which 38% was bread
and unwanted escorts of cultivated plants, they and 62% feed cereals.
prospered and established themselves in northern
regions with unfavorable climates. Their high tol-
erance for unfavorable climates surpassed that of
both wheat and barley. Rye and oats have been 15.1.4 Anatomy – Chemical Composition,
cultivated for millenia. a Review
Breeders have for many years attempted to com-
Cereals, in contrast to forage grasses, form a rela-
bine the baking quality of wheat with the har-
tively large fruit, termed a caryopsis, in which
diness of rye. Triticale, the man-made hybrid of
the fruit shell is strongly bound to the seed shell.
wheat and rye, does not yet fulfill this aim, hence
The kernel size, which is expressed as grams
its economic significance is low.
per 1000 kernels (Table 15.5), is not only depend-
ent on the kind of cereal but on the cultivar and
crop production techniques, hence it varies
15.1.3 Production widely.
In oats, barley, and rice the front and back husks
Cereals are of great importance as raw materials are fused together with the fruit. In contrast,
for production of food and feed. Accordingly, threshing separates wheat and rye kernels from
they are grown on close to 60% of cultivated the husks as bare seed.
land in the world. Wheat production takes up The major constituents of seven kinds of cereal
the greatest part of land cultivated with cereals are fairly uniform (Table 15.6). Noteworthy vari-
(Table 15.1) and wheat is produced in the largest ations are the higher lipid content in oats and
a lower fiber content in millet and rice. The avail-
able carbohydrates consist mainly of starch. Oats
Table 15.1. Land cultivated with a cereal crop as %
are especially rich in nonstarch polysaccharides
of the world total area under cereal cultivation (1979: (cf. 15.2.4.2). These cereals also differ in their vi-
7.6 ×108 ha) tamin B content (Table 15.6).
Fruit and seed coats enclose the nutrient tissue
Cereal 1966 1976 1984 1988 1990 1996 (endosperm) and germ in the kernel (Fig. 15.2).
Wheat 30.6 31.5 34.5 31.2 32.7 32.4 Botanically the endosperm consists of the starchy
Rice 18.8 19.2 21.9 20.9 20.6 21.2 endosperm (70–80% of the kernel; Table 15.7)
Corn 15.5 15.9 19.3 18.2 18.3 19.7 and the aleurone layer, which, with exception of
Millet 15.4a 15.6a 12.3a 5.7 5.3 5.1 barley, is a single cell layer.
Sorghum 6.6 6.3 6.6 The aleurone layer is rich in protein and also
Barley 12.2 11.9 11.7 10.8 10.1 9.4 contains fat, enzymes and vitamins (Table 15.8
Oats 4.5 3.8 3.8 3.2 3.1 2.4 and 15.9). The proteins, of which half are water-
Rye 2.4 2.1 2.6 2.3 2.3 1.6
soluble, appear as granules in the aleurone cells.
a Sum of millet and sorghum. They have no influence on the baking properties