According to the box I have on hand, Cheerios contain:
Whole grain oats, modified corn starch, sugar, oat bran, salt, calcium carbonate, oat fiber, tripotassium phosphate, corn starch, wheat starch, vitamin E.
None of those appears to be a leavening agent. I could, however, predict reactions in which the calcium or potassium salt produces some leavening effect. I take a very "fundamentalist" approach to the prohibition on eating leavened food during Passover: I do not eat anything that has been deliberately leavened, by either biological or chemical means.
Yes, there is wheat in Cheerios. What I fail to understand is how wheat, the principal ingredient in matzoh, comprises "chametz". I am well aware of the long-standing traditions of removing grain products that have not been certified as "kosher for Passover", but what's the basis in religious law?
AFAIK, the source in the Torah for the prohibition on leavened foods is:
And this day shall become a memorial for you, and you shall observe it as a festival for the L-RD, for your generations, as an eternal decree shall you observe it. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove the leaven from your homes ... you shall guard the unleavened bread, because on this very day I will take you out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree. - Exodus 12:14-17
Can someone tell me where the original authority for the prohibition of certain grains (corn, for example, on the usual rationale that it has a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing micro-organisms (and is in Cheerios, BTW)) or grains that must be inherently acceptable (e.g., wheat) but are generally ruled unacceptable?
On a more pragmatic basis: If the Jews fleeing Egypt did not have time to let their bread rise, how could they have had time to conduct detailed searches for chametz or microbiological investigations into nitrogen fixation?
TIA,
Eric