Source: Inventors and Inventions.

Page 1 of 3

Cereal Science
Students experiment with cereal ingredients to determine how cereal makers invent new recipes.

Background

Cereal making is highly scientific. Not any old ingredients will work together. Some won't work at all. And not every ingredient is what it seems to be. Physicists experiment with how bits of cereal mix, mesh, float, and sink-the science of granular substances. Biologists concern themselves with spoilage and sogginess. Chemists worry about dyes that run and how to simulate substances that are too expensive or delicate to include.

Here are a few examples of cereal science in action:

• Bits are generally the same size so that small ones won't drop to the bottom.
• Apples turn brown and so need special preservatives.
• Raisins clump together and so often have special coatings.
• All the ingredients must float the same way in milk so that they don't separate, some floating to the top and others sinking to the bottom.
• Consumers hate soggy cereal or lots of broken bits on the bottom of the box. Reducing sogginess and broken bits is an ongoing challenge.
• Peaches are too expensive, and so cereal makers substitute apples and add "peach flavoring." They can still use the term "peach" in the cereal name.
• Children like cereal that's fun. Machines called extruders work like cookie presses to churn out various fun-shaped bits with ease.
• The waxed bag inside the box keeps cereal fresher longer.

Previous Page

Next Page