John H. Kellogg accidentally invented corn flakes when he was superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in the late 1800s where he promoted a healthy, vegetarian diet and routinely experimented with new food products. Kellogg was working with his brother Will on a new kind of wheat meal for patients. Rolled out wheat dough that had been forgotten overnight broke into thin flakes the next day. The patients liked the new food and Kellogg sold over 10,000 pounds of the cereal in the first year.
Corn flakes, which became the most popular dry cereal in the world, was given a US patent and John Kellogg was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006. He continued to run the sanitarium and invented many other food products including peanut butter, granola, and a grain-based coffee substitute. He died in 1943 at the age of 91. His brother Will founded the Kellogg Toasted Flake Company, the forerunner of today’s Kellogg Company.
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Sincerely,
Leo