What is the history of unknown popularization of cereal foods that continues to replace breakfasts all over the world?

ByRamnath Bhat

As a nutritious breakfast that can be eaten easilyCereal foodIt is popular all over the world. However, there seems to be an unknown strategy behind the fact that the cereal food industry has greatly grown and the cereal food has spread to the table of countries all over the world.

Drop that spoon! The truth about breakfast cereals: an extract from Felicity Lawrence's book | Business | theguardian.com
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/nov/23/food-book-extract-felicity-lawrence

BritishThe GuardianWe have compiled a survey report on the history and strategy of the cereal food makers behind the growth of cereal food that paper changed the dining table of the English morning.

Traditionally in the UK, tea or coffee was a style of breakfast for bread and milk porridge, but when "Cornflakes" landed as the first cereal food from the United States about 90 years ago, gradually "eat cereal food in the morning The root custom has taken root, and cereal food has now become a leading protagonist of the dining table of the morning.

Cereal food is a food born in the United States, which exists as a hamburger and a twin as being infiltrated into the world with an American diet, but its roots occurred in the 19th century in the United StatesTemperance movement(Abstinence movement). In the abstinence movement, the necessity of suppressing alcohol consumption was cried for the purpose of reducing harm to health, but at the same time, a tendency that vegetarian food was good instead of carnivorous was born.

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Among them, when Pastor Sylvester Graham spoke to the audience "Virtue of vegetarian food" in the 1830's,Whole grain"Graham powder" was produced, and a prototype of cereal food was born which kneads it with water and bakes it and then chooses it.

Because cereal food based on graham powder was hard like rock, it was necessary to soak in water overnight before eating, and even though it was ten times as expensive as converted from nutritional ingredients, vegetarian virtue Sales are very good due to the trend, and many people and companies that found business opportunities here have started developing serial foods.

Among them, laterKelloggJohn Harvey Kellogg and William Kees Kellogg's Kellogg brothers are also included, and they developed a cereal food "Granola (granola)" to produce cereal foods and was popular. Although Granola was originally a product name "Granula", it was said that it was renamed because it was appealed by a starting company that developed an original product called Granula.


Michigan State where Kellogg brothers had manufactured cereal foodBattle CreekMany cereal food makers were established in the whole region around the beginning of the 20th century and grew to become a major base where more than 100 grain factories accumulated. At that time, brothers Kellogg devised a "cornflake" which uses cheap corn instead of wheat as a raw material for cereal food. Initially, it was a Kellogg brother who was struggling to handle corn, which is easy to be damaged and readily rot with corruption, but successfully overcome this and succeeded in establishing the manufacturing technology of cornflakes.

However, the cereal food at the time was generally bad taste, it was ridiculed as "food for horse", and those who eat cereal foods were in a state of closing their eyes to the taste for their health. Meanwhile, brother Kellogg brother William decided to put sugar on cereal food, "It's better than taste," the product became popular, but it should have been the biggest cereal food chew The justified name of "for health" was easily withdrawn.

Kellogg, which expanded its business, quickly adopted the global strategy to sell cereal foods worldwide and began exporting cornflakes to the UK in 1924. In selling in the UK, we adopted unemployed people and boy scouts and actively promoting activities, in 1936 sales in the UK exceeded 1 million pounds, and in 1938 opened a local manufacturing factory in Manchester We are doing great breakthroughs.

ByHarald Hoyer

Although it was a cereal food which spreads rapidly, a critical view appeared in the 1940s as to the point of "high nutritional value" or "healthy food" that was appealed in the past. Those questionable about the nutritional value of cereal foods are concerned not only with the large amount of sugar added to make the above eating easier but also the fact that many of the nutrients have been removed during the manufacture of cereal foods It was.

To dodge this criticism, many of the cereal food manufacturers responded by adding various nutrients to the cereal food.Vitamin DStarting with,InulinPolysaccharides such as polysaccharides and sweeteners, and also appealing to marketing in recent yearsPrebiotics, The strategy of adding nutritional ingredients to cereal foods is still being continued. In other words, most of the nutrients of cereal foods are not derived from the grain of the raw materials, but due to the added nutrients.

ByBarb Watson

In addition, it is pointed out that cereal food manufacturers are investing huge sales promotion expenses to appeal to "good for health". According to JP Morgan's report, the biggest cost in cereal food is "marketing expenses", not product development costs or manufacturing costs, which amounts to 20 to 25% of sales.

As a marketing method, it is also characteristic that not only appeals good things on health on television, but also often targets children, such as producing animated characters. This is a technique of doing a potential incentive to purchase continuously even when becoming an adult by familiarizing themselves with cereal food since childhood, knowing that McDonald's of a hamburger chain is also adopted It is done.

ByHeather Paul

Although it is a cereal food which has been spread all over the world including the UK with a clever marketing method, the next target is seen as a rapidly growing huge market such as China and India.