Breakfast cereal Oats Company made a candy-coated puffed cereal, a wheat-based product similar to Cracker Jack's candy-coated popcorn. Ranger Joe, the first pre-sweetened breakfast cereal, and little more than candy-coated puffed wheat or rice, was introduced in the US in 1939. After World War II, the big breakfast cereal companies—now including General Mills, who entered the market in 1924 with Wheaties—increasingly started to target children. The flour was refined to remove fiber, which at the time was considered to undermine digestion and absorption of nutrients, and sugar was added to improve the flavor for children. The new breakfast cereals began to look
Breakfast cereal Breakfast cereal Breakfast cereal is a food product made from processed cereal grains and often eaten for breakfast, primarily in Western societies. It is most often mixed with milk, yogurt, or fruit. Some companies promote their products for the health benefits from eating oat-based and high-fiber cereals. In the United States, cereals are often fortified with vitamins but can also lack many of the vitamins needed for a healthy breakfast. A significant proportion of cereals are made with high sugar content. Many breakfast cereals are produced via extrusion. The breakfast cereal industry has gross profit margins of 40–45%, 90% penetration