Iron in Breakfast Cereal. Demonstrations for National Chemistry Week 2004

Abstract

Cereal manufacturers have a few choices for how they include iron in their products. Some cereal manufacturers prefer to add particles of pure iron metal (called elemental iron or reduced iron) because elemental iron is stable in storage and does not affect the cereal's flavor. General Mills' brand-name Total is one such cereal. The addition of this strongly magnetic form of iron allows Total cereal to be used in the two demonstrations described in this article. In the first, a flake of Total cereal is inserted between the two poles of a permanent magnet. The iron in the cereal allows the flake to remain suspended between the two poles. The second uses crushed Total cereal and a neodymium magnet. The crushed cereal is scattered over clear Plexiglas and the magnet can be moved around underneath. This drags the iron filings through the crushed cereal.