ABSTRACT
Cereal and cereal products are one of the most important staple foods. About two billion tons of cereals are produced in the world annually. The
major cereals in the world are: wheat, rye, barley, oats, maize, rice, millet and sorghum. All cereals are members of the grass family. Although many plants from the family chenopodiaceae are used for human nutrition (e.g., spinach, beet), yet only three plants, Buckwheat, Quinoa and Amaranthus have gained importance as grains, so called pseudo-cereals, worldwide. Botanically they are assigned to the dicotyledonous, but they all produce starch – rich seeds that can be used like cereals. Pseudocereals are dicotyledonous species which are not closely related to each other or to the true cereals monocotyledonous (e.g., wheat, rice, barley, etc.). The name pseudocereal derives from their production of small grain-like seeds that resemble in function and composition those of the true cereals.
