ABSTRACT
Cereals play a significant role in food security for humankind across the world. Most calories, B-vitamins, minerals, and proteins are obtained from cereals like wheat, rice, maize, barley, oats, sorghum, rye, and millets. Among them, wheat, rice, or maize is commonly considered a single staple food in most countries, and these cereals provide greater than 90% of the total cereal calories. In general, the consumption of cereal grains accounts for more than 50% of the world’s daily calorific intake. Each kind of cereal grain has distinct physical properties according to its shape, size, weight, texture, and density. Differences within species are comparatively less than differences among genera. The physical properties are affected mainly by the surrounding environment and handling during the storage of cereals. This is a significant criterion for designing different equipment and machinery for cereal-based food processing and preservation. The physical properties are also important to determine the specific end use of cereal grains because they affect the functionality as well as the chemical composition of grain. Therefore, this chapter deals with the different physical properties of cereal grains and the grain quality characteristics.
