CEREAL

I.DEFINITION
Cereal are cultivated plants of the grass
family that yield edible starchy seeds or
grains. The common cereal grains are: rice,
wheat, corn or maize, millet or sorghum, rye
oats and triticale.
A.Rice
– the staple food of over half of the world’s population. In the
Philippines 80% of the population are rice eaters.
_ Rice is the primary or secondary staple of 90% of the low-income
group in the most densely populated areas of the world.
 1.Classification of rice varieties
Location of cultivation
a. Lowland
Majority of rice grown in the Philippines is lowland, mainly in
Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Ilocos and Bicol Regions.
a. Ex.IR20,IR 26, IR28 etc.

b. Upland
Varieties grown in plateaus and mountainous areas like
are:Azuzena,Palawan, BPI-48, dinalaga miltex, and IR-5
c. Binago or luma
Refers to the new harvest or last year’s stock , respectively.
2. Rice Milling and Products
a.Rough rice or Paddy rice –delivered to the mills after a
drying period. It is passed through shaker screens to remove
weeds pebbles foreign seeds and other impurities.
*Polished rice-bran and germ are removed
b. Enriched rice –consist of adding nutrients to polished rice
rice
c.Parboiled rice or converted rice –is rough rice or palay that
is soaked, steamed, dried and finally milled
d. Pinipig-is a type of parboiled rice prepared by soaking,
steaming and drying the palay.The rice used is generally the
waxy variety which is low amylose-containing, locally called
malagkit.
e. Quick cooking or Minute rice-is precooked, rinsed, dried
and packaged as a convenient food item.
f. Rice grits or binlid-are broken rice kernels as a result of the
milling process
g. Rice starch-is 100% pure carbohydrate obtained from the
endosperm of the rice grain.
h. Rice oil-is extracted from the bran is a good
quality salad for cooking oil.

Note!
It is not commercially produced in the Philippines because the
bran is fully utilized as food or feed.
B. Corns
Known as maize in Europe and Great Britain
from which the local term mais is derived. Next to rice
and wheat, it is the third widely used cereal,
representing 20% of the world’s total consumption.
1. Varieties of Corn
Corn is commonly classified as white or yellow. In the
Philippines, well-known hybrids are Batangas, yellow flint,
sweet corn pop corn, etc.
*Yellow corn is preferred to white corn for feeds because of
its carotenoid pigments.
2.Corn Millings and products
a. Corn grits-are coarsely ground from whole kernels from
which the bran and germ have been removed.They are
graded on the shaker screen with 10 to 22 square openings
per linear inch
b.Corn meal-I [prepared by grinding white or yellow corn to
fine granules smaller than corn grits.
c.Corn flour-is finely pulverized grit, a product that
resembles wheat flour.
d. Cornstarch-is refined starch in powdery form obtained from
the endosperm by a wet-milling process.
e. Hominy-is corn with the hull and germ removed.
f. Corn oil-is extracted from the germ of rice by pressure.
g. Corn as breakfast cereals and snack foods-are made from
corn grits that are precooked, dried and then puffed, toasted,
flaked or shredded.
h. Corn and corn products-are used in many household recipes
or commercially prepared foods as added ingredients or
thickening agents.
i. Mexican “tortilla”is a round flat bread made from corn flour.
C. Wheat
Wheat traditionally grows in a temperature
climate. It is internationally favored for its bread
making properties.
Market forms of Wheat that are cooked as substitute
for rice
a. Bulgur or Parboiled wheat-is whole wheat that has been
cooked, dried partially debranned and cracked into smaller
fragments.
b. Cracked wheat-is prepared by breaking debranned wheat,
other than durum wheat, into a coarse meal. Farina is similarly
prepared , except that its granules are finer making it suitable for
infant feeding.
D. Sorghum OR Millet
Millet grains are smaller than wheat and rice
kernels. It is also known as Guinea corn
Ex.
Dawa-a tiny millet like grain known to come from Cebu.
E. Barley
Barley was the chief bread cereals of ancient Greeks,
Hebrews, and Romans and is still used to limited extent in
Europe. Its main use today is for malt production and animal
feed formulation.
a. Pearl Barley-is prepared by removing the hull and bran from whole
grain barley.Barley flour is an ingredient in processed cereals and baby
foods.
F. Rye
Rye is the major grain in Northern Europe. Its
principal feature is its hardiness. It is more resistant
to cold weather , pests and diseases than wheat. It
is also used for making whisky and for feeding
livestock.
a. Rye Flour-is available as white , medium or dark colored
flour.
G. Oats
Oats as a cereal crop can grow well in poor
soil and dull, rainy climate. It ripens fast even with a
minimum of sunshine.It is also suitable for animal
feeding, particularly for horses.
a. Oatmeal-is prepared by dehulling the oat grains into
groats.
H. Triticale
Triticale is a hybrid of rye and wheat recently
developed and tested in 1970.Triticale flour is suitable for
making breads and noodles.
I. Buckwheat
Buckwheat is the seed of an herbaceous plant.It does
not belong to the grass family but it contains a glutinuos
material making it suitable as a wheat substitute. Its main use
is as flour ingredient for griddle cakes.
II. STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION
A.PHYSICAL STRUCTURE
1.Bran-is the outer covering and constitutes about 5% of the kernel. It
contains cellulose , minerals or ash, vitamins and some proteins.Just beneath
the balky bran is a group of single layered swuare cells called aleeurone layer
that represents 8% of the kernel and is rich in protein, ash and thiamin.
2.Germ or Embryo-is a small part located at the lower end of the grain.It
makes up 3% of the kernel and is concentrated in oil, protein, ash and
vitamins. This is the part easily attacked by insects and oxidative rancidity.
3.Endosperm-makes up 85% of the kernel .It consists of well-packed starch
granules embedded in a matrix of protein.
*The white pigments in rice and other white cereals belong top the flavones.
*Carotenoids-are yellow pigments found in yellow corn .Its main types are
xanthophylls, cryptoxanthin, alpha and beta-carotene
III. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION and NUTRITIVE VALUE
Cereals contain approximately 75%
carbohydrates ,10% protein, 10% moisture, 1 to 2% fat,
and 1 to 2% ash. Cereals that are ostensibly dry contain
8 to 12% moisture. Protein is a low 7.5% in ordinary
rice to a high 14% in oats. In addition to this
components, vitamins, enzymes, and pigments are
present in cereals.
~Enriched cereals are excellent sources of thiamin, niacin,
riboflavin, and iron.
*Washing rice many times and using too much water which
is removed later as am and thrown away reduce the water-
soluble vitamin and mineral content of the rice.
~Starch in cereals is highly digestible and the fiber furnishes
roughage . The laxative effect of whole grains is due to the
fiber or cellulose and germ oil. Germ oil also supplies
unsaturated fats and the fats and the fat –soluble vitamins E
and K.
IV.CEREAL COOKERY
The main aims of cereal cookery are:
1.To improve palatability such as flavor, texture or
consistency and color by gelatinization and
dextrinization, by varying the kind of cereal and
added ingredients and by using different methods of
coking.
2.To increase digestibility by softening the cellulose
and gelatinizing the starch.IV. CE
V. RICE COOKING
A. Ratio of water to cereal
The average range of the amount of water per cup dry polished rice
is one to 2 cups. Waxy varieties or high–amylose containing cereals , short
grained kernels, newly harvested rice cooking in automatic cookers with tight
lids and preference for drier and harder kernels need less water , that is close
to the 1:1 ratio. If a consumer likes amore moist and sticky steamed rice, he
has to add over two cups water per cup raw rice.
In cooking breakfast cereals, like champorado, oatmeal, cream of
wheat or farina, more water is required for a thinner porridge. Also the finer
granulation, the more water absorbed. Thus, 1 cup oat meal needs 2 cups
water, while one cup farina needs 4 cups water. To avoid humping, The dry
cereal is added gradually to boiling water and stirred gently with a fork. The
mixture is stirred occasionally to prevent scorching.Too much agitation
however, will make it pasty because the grains may rupture or disintegrate ,
allowing starch molecules embedded within the gelatinized granules to
escape into the cooking solution.
B. Gelatinization-is a series of steps which dependent
on water and heat. The moist heat method of cooking
starch requires the right proportion of water as
determined by a number of factors and the proper
endpoint of cooking .
C. Cooking Methods
Start with cold water or boiling water. The latter
method is followed if separate , fluffier kernels are
desired. Once all the water is absorbed by the grains,
reduce heat and cover vessel tightly. Finish steaming by
allowing 10 more minutes for white rice,20 minutes for
converted or parboiled rice .
D. Effects of other ingredients
The use of acid, sugar, or fat delays gelatinization.When
a relatively higher concentration of sugar is added to
raw malagkit, the kernels become hard and would not
gelatinize completely.Therefore the addition of such
ingredients toward the last period of cooking allows
for complete swelling and gelatinization.
Milk, eggs, and gelatin add viscossity since these
ingredients have the ability to thicken and gel.
Cooking in hard water at an alkaline pH of 8 changes
the white color of cereals to creamy or yellow
grains.Cooking in lye water or lihiya as in suman sa
lihiya and kutsinta produces a brown cereal or starch
pruduct as well as a stickier texture.
E. Dextrinization-is the effect of dry heat on starch ,
e.g., toasting pinipig, browning of rice for kari kari and
toasting bread. It changes the starch to smaller
fragments called dextrins which impart a sweetish
taste that the original starch does not have.Iuts ability
to gelatinize and thicken is reduced.
VI. POINTERS IN BUYING CEREALS
1.Check how clean the rice is,i.palay and hulls
or ipa are relatively absent
2.Look closely for the proportion of broken
kernels or binlid.
3.Smell a handfull to detect off-odors ,
especially from insect infestation
4.Note the presence of seeds , stones, rice
weevils, larvae, etc.
5.Buy by weight. Get your rice supply from
reliable sources.
VII. STORAGE AND CARE
Aims of proper storage and packaging of cereals are:
1.to retain crispness as in ready-to-eat cereals;
2.to avoid off- flavors absorbed from surrounding foreign odors;
3.to prevent the entrance of rodents, insect infestation and mold growth;
and
4.to avoid moisture absorption.