The Quaker Symbol, Became The First Registered Trademark For A Breakfast Cereal Get your bowl and your spoon ready for March 7 is National Cereal Day. Since the end of the 19th century, cereal has become America’s most popular breakfast food. Do you remember mornings eating a bowl of cereal, reading the back of the box and trying to find the toy inside the box? Now, not only is cereal eaten for breakfast, it has become a popular bedtime snack, and some people even have a bowl for an evening meal. Cereal is also used in many cake, cookie and bar recipes. The most popular one is Rice Crispy Bar Treats. Ferdinand Schumacher, a German immigrant, began the cereal revolution in 1854 with a hand oats grinder in the back room of a small store in Akron, Ohio. His German Mills American Oatmeal Company was the nation’s first commercial oatmeal manufacturer. In 1877, Ferdinand Schumacher adopted the Quaker symbol, the first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal. Granula, the first breakfast cereal, was invented in the United States in 1863 by James Caleb Jackson, operator of Our Home on the Hillside, which was later replaced by the Jackson Sanatorium in Dansville, New York. The cereal never became popular since it was inconvenient as the heavy bran nuggets needed soaking overnight before they were tender enough to eat. The cereal industry rose from a combination of sincere religious beliefs and commercial interest in health foods. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg experimented with granola. He boiled some wheat, rolled it into thin films, and baked the resulting flakes in the oven; he acquired a patent in 1891. In 1895 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg launched Cornflakes, which overnight captured a national market. In 1906, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg’s brother, William K. Kellogg, after working for John, broke away, bought the corn flakes rights from his brother and set up the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company. His signature on every package became the company trademark and insurance of quality. Charles W. Post introduced Grape-nuts in 1898 and soon followed with Post Toasties. Because of Kellogg and Post, the city of Battle Creek, Michigan is nicknamed the “Cereal Capital of the World.” Cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often eaten as breakfast. The word cereal comes from Cerealia, the name of ancient Roman ceremonies that honored Ceres, the goddess of grain. Breakfast cereal companies make gluten-free cereals for consumers who suffer from Celiac Disease The first cereal grains were domesticated by early primitive humans, about 8,000 years ago. 50 percent of Americans start their days with cereal. Americans consume 101 pounds or 160 bowls of cereal per person every year. The cereal industry uses 816 million pounds of sugar per year. Rice Krispies mascots Snap, Crackle and Pop briefly had a fourth brother named Pow in early 1950. The first breakfast cereal, originally named “Granula,” was invented in the United States in 1863 by James Caleb Jackson. To create puffed cereals, makers use a pressure-cooking method called “gun-puffing,” a process that Quaker Oats developed at the turn of the 20th century. Astronauts ate Kellogg’s Corn Flakes aboard Apollo 11, the first moon landing. The cereal industry in the United States uses over 400 million kilograms of sugar per year. Kellogg’s Corn Flakes were eaten by astronauts aboard Apollo 11 which made the first landing on the Moon. The cereal was mixed with fruit and pressed into cubes to make them easier to eat in the conditions of zero gravity. Kellogg’s breakfast cereals “Honey Smacks” and “Golden Crisp” have more than 50% sugar. The most popular items sold in grocery stores are milk and carbonated beverages. After them come breakfast cereals. Cheerios were first called “Cheerioats” but Quaker Oates complained so the name was changed in 1945. Quaker Oats gave an interesting prize in their cereals in the 1950s. As an advertisement for their cereals and a CBS’s TV show “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon” they gave a deed of land for one square inch of Yukon land for every box top from their cereal. John Draper (AKA Captain Crunch, named after Cap’n Crunch breakfast cereal mascot) used plastic whistle that was a prize in Cap’n Crunch breakfast cereal to make free phone calls in the 1970s. Over 2.7 billion packages of cereal are sold every year. Lucky Charms were invented in 1963 by General Mills. And the pink heart is the only marshmallow that hasn’t been changed in either shape or color during the history of the cereal, Fun Trivia reports. Corn Pops are one of the top 15 best-selling cereals worldwide. The first puffed cereal went on the market in the 1937s, with the introduction of Kix. Trix, which were created in 1954, still stand as one of Genreal Mills’ most popular cereals. Thurl Ravenscroft, the man who voiced the Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes mascot, Tony the Tiger, was the same man who sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” in Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Honey Nut Cheerios. Introduced in 1979, this Cheerios offshoot soared in popularity thanks in part to its cartoon bee mascot. But for more than two decades, he didn’t have a name. In 2000, General Mills launched a national naming contest, eventually landing on the name “BuzzBee” or “Buzz” for short. Vernon J. Herzing, a manager at Post’s Battle Creek, Michigan cereal production facility, designed this kid and adult favoriteusing ingredients from the cereals already being manufactured at his facility—including Toasties, Sugar Sparkle Flakes, and Grape-Nuts Flakes. Working at home with his teenage daughter in the late 1980s, he finally hit on the winning combination of flakes, granola, and honey, which he originally called “Battle Creek Cereal.” Lester Borchardt, a physicist working for General Mills, spent many months and more than $150,000 trying to get a puffing machine to quickly turn out grain cereal. His bosses told him to pull the plug, but Borchardt pressed on, and finally got the machine to make tasty little “o”s. Wheaties started putting athletes on their box in 1934. The very first was the great Yankee star … No, not that one, the other one … no, not him either. The guy who sort of looks like Gary Cooper. No, not him, Lou Gehrig. Since then, it seems that everyone other than dart throwers have graced the front of the box. Such sports luminaries include: Aaron Rodgers, Stephen Curry, Lindsey Vonn, Peyton Manning, Mia Hamm, Richard Petty, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Michael Jordon, Roy Campanella, Hank Greenberg, Mel Ott, and Jesse Owns. According to a 1972 paper in the journal Pediatrics, everyone’s favorite strawberry-flavored cereal was the same color coming in and going out. You can thank the cereal’s synthetic dye, which “can’t be broken down or absorbed by the body,” says Smithsonian. The condition was benign, but not the nickname it spawned: Frankenberry stool. Not to be outdone, a sister cereal, Booberry, turned stool green, while Smurfberry Crunch Cereal turned your American Standard blue. Mm-mmm! 5,000+ – Number of breakfast cereals sold in the U.S. $496.6 million – Sales of General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios in 2017, making it the second-best selling cereal in the U.S. (Private labels were no. 1.) $9.8 billion – Estimated total U.S. sales of breakfast cereals in 2017. 6% – The total volume of sugar in Kellogg’s Honey Smacks. A one-cup serving has more sugar than a Twinkie. 14 pounds – Average annual consumption of breakfast cereal per capita in the U.S. 2,480 pounds – The weight of the world’s largest Rice Krispie Treat created by students at Iowa State University. Staffers from Kellogg’s own home economics department came up with Rice Krispie Treats in 1939 to raise funds for Camp Fire Girls. The idea struck a chord and has stuck around every since. Celebrities adore breakfast cereals and aren’t shy about showing their love, including Jay-Z (Cap’n Crunch Berries), Rihanna (Golden Grahams), Taylor Swift (Cinnamon Toast Crunch), Justin Bieber (Frosted Mini Wheats), Miley Cirus (Frosted Flakes), Lady Gaga (Honey Nut Cheerios) and LeBron James (Fruity Pebbles). Sources: National Day Calendar Foodimentary Mobile-Cuisine History of Cereals IBTimes Mental Floss ReadersDigest Restonic.