ABSTRACT
The ready-to-eat (RTE) breakfast cereal is a useful case to study in that it is a complex process involving solids. To understand what appears to be a complex myriad of products with nonfunctional names, it is helpful to group RTE cereals by generic type. RTE cereals fall into five broad categories, which are familiar to most consumers. The addition of vitamins, fiber, and protein to RTE cereals is quite common and tends to generate a specific set of processing and formulation problems. Texture in RTE breakfast cereal is critical to product acceptance by the consumer. Crisp and crunchy textures are expected and can be imparted to amorphous, soft cooked grains in a number of ways. RTE cereals are heavily advertised. Recognizing that many individuals add sugar as well as milk to their breakfast cereal, the cereal manufacturers developed a new product category of presweetened RTE cereal.
