BASIC FOOD PRODUCTS

1. Cereals
The common cereals are rice, wheat, maize, barley, rye, oats
and millets. The millets consist of jowar, bajra, and ragi. The bulk
of man's food (staple diet) consists of one kind or other of cereals.
Cereals are monocotyledons or single-grained seeds of the
domesticated grasses. As harvested they are enclosed in a woody
envelope called husk that is removed by milling.
The grain itself is spherical, ovoid or spindle-shaped varying
in size from 0.5 mm in the case of ragi to 10 mm in the case of
maize. The grain is divisible into four parts: germ (embryo) which
is situated at the pole; bran, the outer protective covering 3B
endosperm or the inner kernel forming 75% to 80% of the grain;
and scutellum, the portion between the germ and endosperm.



2. Rice

Rice is the seed of Oryza sativa. Different natural as well as
hybrid varieties are grown. The protein of rice is of better quality
than that of wheat as it has less deficiency of lysine - an essential
E amino acid - than wheat. Iron and phosphorus are the important
e minerals in rice. However, iron is not available to the body because