Cheerios is a brand of breakfast cereal created in 1941 and marketed by the General Mills cereal company of Golden Valley, Minnesota, as the first oat-based, ready-to-eat cold cereal. In some other countries (including the UK), it is sold by Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand. These products marketed as "Cheerios" differ from the US - for example, in the UK and Ireland, consisting of "four grains" (actually five, but four colours of 'O's): maize, oats, barley, wheat and rice.