As a staple, widespread food, cereals are used throughout the world – they are grasses that have been specifically cultivated over many centuries for their edible grains.
A great and relatively cheap source of energy, cereals are naturally rich in vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats and oils. Cereals are made up of bran, endosperm and germ with wholegrain cereal products (like rice, barley and sweetcorn) retaining all 3 parts of the cereal, while refined products often remove the bran, the germ or both. Cereals can come in wholegrain, crushed grain (e.g. samp), rolled seed (e.g. rolled oats) or granulated (e.g. semolina) and finely granulated seeds (e.g. flour).