A YORK inventor has devised an ingenious remedy for soggy cereal syndrome.

Andrew Gray, of Copmanthorpe, York, has created a special bowl which keeps cereal crunchy when the milk is poured on.

The "Crunchy Bowl" is currently being looked at by Kellogg's and Nestl, and Andrew hopes millions of people will soon be eating from it at the breakfast table. The father-of-two, who runs his own company, Gray Matter (Alpha Ltd), made his name after creating the Radlock device, which led to the unstealable supermarket trolley. It is now used by Sainsbury's Supermarket at hundreds of stores across the world.

Andrew, 43, who is a worshipper at St Michael-le-Belfrey Church, first tested the bowl on his wife, Rachel, and two children, Emily and Peter.

"I literally woke up one morning and thought 'why can't I have my cereal more crunchy?'," he said.

"The idea just popped into my head. I did a survey of local schoolchildren and found that about seventy per cent of them preferred their cereal crunchy.

"The actual design of it was just a five minute job. I always try things out on my children first because I don't need them to sign a confidentiality agreement!"

The bowl has a special shelf within it which three-quarters of the cereal sits on just above the milk, therefore keeping it crunchy.

Updated: 10:09 Saturday, November 15, 2003