Rice and wheat can be termed as

Food crops are classified by their botanical origin and dietary role into distinct groups: cereals are grains harvested from cultivated grasses of the family Poaceae, grown mainly for their starchy edible seeds and forming the staple energy source in most diets; pulses are the dry edible seeds of leguminous plants, valued chiefly for protein; vegetables are edible plant parts such as roots, stems, or leaves eaten as part of a savoury diet; and fruits are the mature, often sweet, ovary structures of flowering plants that develop after fertilization.

Rice (Oryza sativa) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) are both cultivated members of the grass family whose harvested product is the starchy grain of the plant, grown and consumed as a staple energy source. This matches the definition of a cereal exactly, so rice and wheat are classified together as cereals.

• Pulses (for example lentils, chickpeas) come from leguminous plants and are seeds valued for protein, not grass-family grains — rice and wheat do not fit this group.

• Vegetables (for example potato, spinach) are non-grain plant parts eaten fresh — rice and wheat are harvested as dry grains, not as roots, stems, or leaves.

• Fruits, in the everyday food-group sense (for example mango, banana, apple), are sweet and fleshy produce eaten fresh; grass-family grains are placed in the separate cereals group even though a cereal grain is technically classed as a type of dry fruit in strict botany.

Since rice and wheat are grass-family plants grown for their starchy grain and are recognised internationally — for example in the FAO Indicative Crop Classification and the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius — as cereals, the correct classification is Cereals.