Kitchen graters and kitchen shredders are sturdy, handheld tools, made of stainless steel, having holes for grating or shredding cheese, vegetables, fresh ginger, chocolate, citrus zest, or other ingredients.

Stainless steel graters may be of different styles and sizes. A box grater is four-sided with the sharp-edged large holes to shred soft cheeses like cheddar or mozzarella or vegetables; the small holes with sharp teeth to grate hard cheeses; the fine holes for grating zest or fresh ginger; and the wide, sharp slots for slicing soft cheeses or vegetables. With the turn of a crank, a rotary grater transforms nuts or chunks of hard cheese or chocolate into fine particles.