Corn flakes are the breakfast cereal that John Harvey Kellogg and Will Keith Kellogg developed in 1898.
The brothers were experimenting with cooked grains at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan. A batch of boiled wheat was accidentally left to stand, producing flakes when it was rolled. They later applied a similar process to corn, creating the cereal now known as corn flakes.
The flakes were toasted and served as a relatively plain breakfast food. Will Kellogg eventually founded the Kellogg Company, while John Harvey Kellogg continued his medical and dietary work. Their partnership and later business separation are often mentioned in accounts of the cereal’s history.
Corn flakes should not be confused with bran flakes or rice cereals. Their defining grain is corn, also called maize in many countries. Kellogg’s Corn Flakes became one of the best-known products of the early packaged-cereal industry.