The Bulletin. 49 



Use of Breakfast Foods. — Of late years breakfast foods have been 

 growing more and more popular, nearly all the cereals being now rep- 

 resented. The oatmeals have been used for a long time and are almost 

 a constant article of diet on the breakfast table. Wheat and corn are 

 perhaps the next two that are more largely used, and rice is coming 

 rapidly into general use. 



Adulterants.— The chemical analyses and microscopic examination 

 show that the breakfast foods are almost if not entirely free from 

 adulteration. Common salt is used in some, which tends to increase 

 the per cent of ash to such an extent that it might be supposed min- 

 eral matter had been added, but none has been found. 



DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. 



A conception of the relative merits of the different kinds of break- 

 fast foods may be obtained by examining the figures in the table be- 

 low, especially the columns marked "Protein" and "Fat." The 

 higher these two constituents, the more nutritious is the food. It will 

 be readily seen that the oat products contain from three to six per cent 

 more protein and from six to seven per cent more fat than the other 

 foods in the table, and are therefore of much more nutritive value. 

 It is shown by the analyses that the wheat products rank second, fol- 

 lowed by the corn and rice products. It is also shown that there is 

 some variation in the analyses of the same brands, which may be due 

 to the quality of the cereal used. 



Nineteen samples of breakfast foods were examined, and all were 

 found free from adulteration. 



STARCH GRAINS. 



In very finely ground substances, such as flour, the adulterants can- 

 not be seen with the naked eye, and the fraud is only brought out 

 when a high-power microscope is used. In examining flours with the 

 microscope, and to get at their composition, the difference in the 

 starch granules of the various grains is taken advantage of. . 



Cereal grains are composed largely of starch, the quantity ranging 

 from sixty to more than eighty per cent of the entire weight of the 

 dry hulled kernels. The starch is collected in almost a pure state in 

 the inner portion of the grain, smaller portions being found in the 

 coats, and only a trace or none at all in the germs. The starches of 

 the cereals have many common properties. They are, as far as can 

 be determined chemically, identical. 



