What It Is
Maida (refined wheat flour) and suji or rava (semolina) are the products of roller flour mills. Maida goes into bread, biscuits, cakes, noodles and namkeen; suji into upma, halwa, rava idli and bakery products.
How It Is Made
In a roller flour mill, cleaned and tempered wheat passes through a series of rollers and sifters that separate the endosperm from the bran and germ. Fine endosperm becomes maida, coarse granules become suji, and the bran is sold as cattle feed. Durum wheat from Madhya Pradesh gives the best semolina for pasta.
Uses and Buyers
Bakeries, biscuit makers, noodle and pasta companies, hotels, sweet shops and the namkeen industry. Large biscuit makers such as Britannia are among the biggest buyers of maida.
Quality and Standards
Maida is checked for protein and gluten, ash (lower is whiter), moisture and particle size; suji for granulation and colour. Food products must meet FSSAI standards and labelling rules; many are also sold under the AGMARK grading mark, and exporters follow the buying country's rules on residues and contaminants.
Trade and Exports
Roller flour mills in South and East India often buy FCI wheat through OMSS e-auctions because they are far from the growing areas.
Where the Raw Material Comes From
Processors buy wheat from the main growing states below. Plants are usually built close to these belts, or close to ports for imported raw material, to keep freight low and quality fresh. Tap a state for its districts, markets, season and buyers.
| State | Main districts |
|---|---|
| Uttar Pradesh | Meerut, Saharanpur, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Gorakhpur |
| Madhya Pradesh | Sehore, Vidisha, Raisen, Hoshangabad (Narmadapuram), Ujjain, Indore, Dewas |
| Punjab | Ludhiana, Sangrur, Bathinda, Patiala, Firozpur, Moga |
| Haryana | Karnal, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Hisar, Jind, Fatehabad |
| Rajasthan | Kota, Bundi, Baran, Sri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Jaipur |
| Bihar | Rohtas, Buxar, Bhojpur, Kaimur, Nalanda, Patna |
| Gujarat | Saurashtra (Rajkot, Junagadh, Amreli), Ahmedabad Bhal region, Mehsana |
| Maharashtra | Ahmednagar, Nashik, Pune, Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), Jalgaon |
| Uttarakhand | Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar, Dehradun |
| West Bengal | Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur |
Makers, Processors and Bodies
- Sunil Agro Foods LtdBengaluru · roller flour millAboutExplore
- KLRF LtdCoimbatore · roller flour millAboutExplore
- Britannia Industries LtdBiscuit maker; large maida buyerAboutExplore
- Bambino Agro Industries LtdHyderabad · vermicelli and pastaAboutExplore
- Roller Flour Millers' Federation of IndiaIndustry bodyAboutExplore
Related: Wheat · All products · All crops
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