In the present study, a new dimensional method and equation were developed to calculate the sphericity (phi(s)) of certain shapes (sphere, cubes, rectangular solid and cylinder) and some granular food materials (wheat, bean, intact red lentil, chickpea and coarse bulgur). It was found that increase in phi(s) value caused deviation from the absolute sphericity (phi(s) = 0). Sphericity was constant and independent of size for certain shapes at 0, 0.00271 and 0.00155 for sphere, cube and cylinder (length = diameter), respectively. Also, the sphericities of wheat, bean, intact red lentil, chickpea and coarse bulgur were determined as 0.01038, 0.00743, 0.00641, 0.00240 and 0.01489, respectively (P < 0.05). As expected, chickpea had the best and coarse bulgur had the worst sphericity due to their specific shapes. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.