What Is The Difference Between India Atta And Wheat Flour

What is Atta?

Atta is a type of whole meal flour, or pulverized whole wheat, that is used in Indian chapati, puri, phulka, tandoori roti, and north Indian parotta. It is also an important ingredient in Indian Kitchen. The atta wheat flour helps you to prepare traditional Indian flat breads like Roti, Naan, etc.

Most atta is milled from hard wheat varieties, also known as durum wheat, that comprise 90% of the Indian wheat crop, and is more precisely called durum atta. Hard wheats have a high gluten content, which provides elasticity, so doughs made out of atta flour are strong and can be rolled out very thin.

Color of Atta

Atta is brown in color as it is derived from the complete wheat kernel with bran. Atta has gluten, that provides possessing and extensibility properties. It’s the gluten in the atta that helps in the rolling of chapathis.

Origin of Atta

Atta is from India. The word ‘whole’ is used to describe atta as it includes every aspect of the grain, meaning the bran, germ and the endosperm. In India, about 80% of the 94 million tons of wheat produced is processed mainly into atta by disc mills numbering 4 lakhs.

Atta Milling Method

Traditionally, atta is made by stone grinding, a process that imparts a characteristic aroma and taste to the bread. The high bran content of wholemeal atta makes it a fiber-rich food. This may help to regulate blood sugar as well have other health benefits. The temperatures attained in a chakki (mill or grinder, traditionally from stone),produced by friction, are of the order of 110–125 deg C. At such high temperatures, the carotenes present in the bran tend to exude the characteristic roasty smell, and contribute to the sweetness of the atta.

The various quality control parameters for the atta industry are ash content, moisture content, acid insoluble ash, water absorption, alcoholic acidity, granulation profile, damaged starch and gluten content.

Atta Application

For chapathi, the atta is mixed with water to form a dough. This dough is then sheeted to a circular shape, baked on a hot plate and puffed over an open fire for few seconds. Complete and full puffing is one of the important quality attributes of chapathi as it results in a soft and pliable texture.

Among the different species, Triticum  aestivum which yields a non sticky dough with good stretchability, and a fully puffed chapathi with soft and pliable texture, is most suitable for chapathi preparation. When the species  T. durum and T. dicoccum are used for chapathi making, a leathery and chewy texture is obtained, which may then be perceived as a dry chapathi.

Physical properties of Atta

Atta is checked for the quality parameters like moisture, ash, acid insoluble ash, alcoholic acidity, granulation profile, damaged starch, gluten content and water absorption.

A finely ground flour, about 80-90 % passing through a 60 mesh sieve (130 µm)  is required for chapathi making.  The ash content of 1.2 – 1.5 %, protein (9.0 – 10.5 %) damaged starch (16-18 %) and water absorption (72-78 %) are some of the important quality characteristics suitable for chapathi making.

Nutrition of Atta

Atta has better nutritional characteristics than wheat flour as it contains higher amount of protein, dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals. But has comparatively poor shelf life due to the presence of oil from the germ and fat breaking enzymes.

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