Colored cereals: Beyond nutritional values

Food should be considered as a source of esthetics in our daily lives. Many factors are responsible for perception of esthetics/appearance of the food. Color, aroma, and texture are vital quality attributes that determine consumer acceptance. Colorful food grains create appealing taste/appearance, and consumers are on the way to try innovative and creative colorful cereal grains on the plate. The color of the grains is chiefly because of the presence of chlorophylls, carotenoids, phyto-melanins, curcuminoids, anthocyanins, betalains, bixin, and carmine. These colored cereal grains are packed with antioxidants and radical scavenging activities against different oxidative stress-related disorders, anti-lipidemic, anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-microbial, and anti-parasitosis properties. In addition to the good nutritional and health-promoting effects, the colored cereal grains also have good physical and functional properties. Colored wheat and rice contain plenty of bioactive components that not only contribute to their nutritional quotient however also add to the functional attributes of the grain. Studies have revealed that colored varieties of rice were found to have better physical properties such as seed density, thousand kernel weight (TKW), seed volume, hydration capacity, swelling capacity, swelling index, kernel elongation, and bulk density as compared to the white ones. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the properties of colored cereal grains that influence their physicochemical nature.