In an effort to boost breakfast meals with high dietary value especially for children, a Technical Committee Meeting was recently held in Lagos to develop new Nigeria Industrial Standards for Cereals and Cereal products and review the standard for cornflakes.
This according to the committee, is also to facilitate the certification of existing cereal and cereal products in the market in order to continuously guarantee consumers value for money.
According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, cereals are traditional breakfast meals especially for children, made from processed cereal grains or any grass cultivated for the edible components.
The Commission said further that processed cereal-based foods are prepared primarily from one or more milled grains, which should constitute at least 25% of the final mixture on a dry weight basis.
Declaring the meeting open, Director General Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Osita Aboloma, explained thus “developing the standards is a means of improving wellness and providing nutritional diet for both the old and young”.
According to him, Nigeria stands to benefit from the development of these standards through products that are globally accepted which in turn would increase trade opportunities and competitiveness at the sub regional, continental and global levels.
He stated that cereals are identified in different forms and grouped according to the grains used in the production, contents, as well as the processes used in creating a wholesome and acceptable product.
Represented by the Director, Standards Development, Mrs. Chinyere Egwuonwu, the DG SON enumerated specifications for the different kinds of cereals and stated that the development of the various standards are sacrosanct to the actualization of healthy eating.
The Standards deliberated upon include Cornflakes (obtained from maize flour or maize grit), Rice Crispy, also called Pops (from a mixture of Rice Flour and other ingredients by extrusion, cooking, drying and toasting), Oatmeal (derived from cereal grain oat (Avena Sativa) and Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal (low in saturated fat and cholesterol in order to reduce the risk of heart diseases).