Biology became economically successful, the cereal world soon realized pragmatic qualities can be observed in many of those hyperactive it had to start using food science for the purpose of appealing commercials for junky cereals. While most of the marketing is The Breakfast Lab to Americans’ tastes: by just adding sugar. The first expressly directed at selling the experience of eating candy for breakfast, The History of Food Science that Gave Rise to the Modern Breakfast Cereal sweetened cereal was Ranger Joe Popped Wheat Honnies, there are still appeals to the adults in the room, hoping to sell a product that started a trend of marketing cereals to kids. a cereal’s more “nutritive” properties — take, for example, the Manufacturers soon realized that to have a lead in this race, marketing of ‘essential vitamins and minerals’ in sugary cereals.) Written by Josh Holtzman they would have to flavor their cereals with increasingly exciting Science has helped us get to a point in our gastronomic history Illustrated by Averly Sheltraw flavors. Scientists were employed across the country to synthesize where we can feasibly demand food that is both aesthetic and ave you ever wandered down the cereal aisle, at a which at the time focused on meeting the appetite and nutritional flavors that could make processed foods even more stimulating pragmatic. One may say that these two aspects of food were loss for words at the bounty of different varieties and needs of the people as cheaply and efficiently as possible. From and exciting, in sharp contrast with John Kellogg’s original goals never completely separate; however, they were treated as such, flavors? You have food science to thank for that! Food this mindset sprung theologically driven dietary trends in the for the cereal. and still sometimes function as such today. Nonetheless, they H science currently offers us exciting innovations that United States. Sylvester Graham, a self-made dietician at the This change from useful to aesthetic was implemented operate together to create our humble breakfast cereal. continue to better the quality of what we eat. However, food forefront of the sexual temperance movement in the mid-19th so quickly that it is easy to forget that the bifurcation of science The confluence of the aesthetic and pragmatic in the science suffers from an internal conflict: do we eat to live, or century, believed a bland diet was the way to piety and grace. in food manufacturing could be pinpointed almost exactly to the development of breakfast cereal offers a preview of what is live to eat? In terms of science and its application to food, this He designed the original Graham cracker from Graham flour and conflict between the Kellogg brothers. From that point forward, currently unfolding in the food industry. Innovations continue to means distinguishing between using science to improve food as water, which he believed was a path to sexual temperance. This the contrasting pragmatic and aesthetic goals of the food industry demonstrate the harmony of aesthetic and pragmatic applications a pragmatic product (e.g., through advancements in food safety, version of the Graham cracker was hard and unsweetened. are reflected in the two major types of cereal: “children’s” or of science in food development. For example, the Impossible nutrition, and yield) and using it to improve the consumer's Many of the early innovators of breakfast cereals were “junky” cereal and “adult” cereal. However, the division down Burger is a vegetarian burger whose primary purpose is to get aesthetic experience of food (e.g., through improving the sensory at least partially influenced by the preaching and invention of that grocery aisle may no longer be such a clear-cut line. omnivores to stop eating meat. The two main reasons to forgo and psychological experiences). This dilemma has been reflected Sylvester Graham. At the end of the 19th century, for example, It may seem that “healthy” cereals fortify themselves eating meat are that it is bad for the environment and sometimes in the development of breakfast cereal. However, breakfast most nutritionists noticed Americans were having breakfasts for nutrition’s sake while “junky” cereals add flavorings for the unhealthy for us. While these reasons are pragmatic, the methods cereals can also show us that food's aesthetic and pragmatic containing rich, heavy foods. Food manufacturers, inspired by sake of maximizing taste over health. However, modern food by which Impossible Foods and other meat-alternative producers qualities are not always separate; the future of food science may the publications of home cookbooks that preached bland, simple science employs both “healthy” (pragmatic) and “sensory- are getting meat-lovers to switch to alternatives is by designing even rely on merging these qualities. When one considers how diets, began looking for cheap, effective, and fiber-rich breakfast centric” (aesthetic) innovations to both healthy and junky a food product that gives the illusion of meat. Impossible Foods food science has changed our relationship to food, especially substitutions. The first to yield economic success in this emerging cereals. For example, healthy cereals appeal to a consumer and other successful modern food science companies reach a in the case of breakfast cereal, the apparent split between the market was J.C. Jackson in 1894, who produced a crumble of palate that is acclimated to being overstimulated. The humble solution to a pragmatic issue through aesthetic means. What the pragmatic and aesthetic diminishes, and the two categories can baked Graham flour which he named "granula." His creation was bran flake is sweetened and contains artificial flavors in order to Impossible Burger (and in fact much of the history of food science) be seen intertwining and even merging. heavily inspired by Graham's teachings of temperance through make it palatable for the modern market. On the flip side, junky can teach us about changing our relationship to something as This ongoing debate between the aesthetic and the elimination of "vicious consumption." Granula, the ancestor cereals are made to be shelf-stable and fortified with vitamins, fundamental as eating is that innovation works best when it pragmatic functions of food is what contextualizes most of the of "granola," was what inspired C.W. Post to invent the cereal appealing to those who think cereal must primarily be pragmatic fires on all cylinders. By finding harmony between aesthetic and history of food science and has influenced the direction of food Grape Nuts, which are still on the shelves. or, to quote every cereal’s marketing department, “part of a pragmatic improvement rather than insisting on a rivalry between research. In times of prosperity, science has been used to improve Around the same time, John and William Kellogg balanced breakfast.” In fact, the merging of cereal’s aesthetic and them, we can sooner move into the future of food. the experience of food, whereas, in times of hardship or change, invented corn flakes as an attempt to improve the mental and research has targeted improving the yield, shelf life, nutritional physical health of those in their sanitarium in Battle Creek, properties, and utilitarian purposes of food. For example, the popularization of food science in Europe just before the turn The duality of science’s use in food is of the 19th century took the form of "high-art" French cuisine (founded by Marie-Antoine Carême), in which French chefs co- represented in the genesis of the common opted laboratory techniques to expand forms of modernist cuisine breakfast cereal. reserved exclusively for the upper class. However, in the years that followed, the Napoleonic Wars increased the demand for Michigan. John Kellogg believed, "…a sanitarium must provide cheap, safe, nutritious food that could be transported over long food prepared in such manner as to be both wholesome and distances. This encouraged several innovations in food safety, palatable, tempting to the patient whose appetite is perverted including tinning/canning and an early form of pasteurization and fickle, and at the same time easy of digestion and highly (50 years prior to Pasteur's discoveries). After this period, the nourishing." Kellogg, a Seventh Day Adventist, drew a lot Industrial Revolution allowed consumer tastes to change and of inspiration from Graham's philosophy in trying to feed his grow into new trends now that the threat of food shortage was patients while avoiding sumptuous, overstimulating foods. In the gone. This pattern continues throughout the history of food years leading up to his brother William Kellogg's discovery of the science: historical context dictates a need, necessity becomes fermented corn flake, his brother John had worked tirelessly to a commodity, a lack of strife allows consumer tastes to change, develop a food that would mediate all gluttonous urges, but with food science aids in the propagation of those tastes, and the little success. Once William invented the corn flake, John falsely cycle starts anew. This cycle has split the field of food science into took credit and forbade William from editing the recipe. However, its two overarching categories. William saw potential in the cereal as a commercial product and So what does all of this have to do with breakfast cereal? wanted to sweeten it so it would sell better, a modification in The duality of food research is seen in the development of the conflict with John's theology. William ended up starting his own common breakfast cereal. Early cereals were invented by those company, selling a modified version of his corn flakes, while his who strongly believed in the pragmatic, nourishing, and nutritious brother died in relative obscurity. function of food. Back in 1833, the culture of diets in the United Cereals changed very quickly from pragmatic health States was greatly influenced by the state of food science research, food to aesthetically-centered food.