Cereals play an important role in agriculture worldwide. According to the World Food and Agriculture Organization's statistics, global cereal production in 2021/2022 has been estimated at 2815 million tonnes.¹  Globally, rice, maize, and wheat are the three most important cereal crops, which together comprise at least 75% of grain production.²  However, the utilization pattern of these cereal grains differs between developed and developing countries. In the former, more than 70% of total cereal production is fed to animals, whereas in the latter, almost all cereal production is used for human consumption.³  Cereals are considered a rich source of carbohydrate, protein, and dietary fiber, with rice, maize, and wheat providing more than 90% of total calories from cereals.⁴  In addition to high amounts of carbohydrates and proteins, cereal grains also contain many health-promoting components such as vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.⁵  ‘Phytochemical’ is a broad term that refers to chemically diverse compounds that occur naturally in plants and that exert protective or disease-preventing effects in humans.⁶  Some of these compounds are pigments that impart colour to those plant tissues in which they are accumulated in large amounts.