Sieve Guide for Indian Kitchens: Atta Chalni, Mesh Sizes, and Why Finer Is Not Better
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A quick note: This article shares general food and wellness information for Indian readers. It is not medical advice. Bodies differ. If you are pregnant, unwell, or managing a health condition, please ask your doctor before making changes.
- What a sieve is, and what we call it
- Mesh or micron: how sieve sizes are named
- What mesh size atta and maida legally need
- Should you sieve atta finer? CFTRI says no
- What stays in the sieve is not waste
- Can a chalni remove ghun and weevils?
- Steel, nylon or plastic: what to check
- Which sieves an Indian kitchen should own
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Is a Sieve, and What Do Indians Call It?
Short answer: A sieve is a frame with a measured mesh across it. You shake dry powder through it, and the mesh sorts that powder by size. A strainer holds back wet solids. A colander drains water. Three jobs, three tools.
Almost every Indian kitchen owns one. Very few of us know its size.
That is the gap this guide closes. The number on a sieve is not decoration.
Sieve, strainer or colander?
| Tool | What goes through it | Typical kitchen job |
|---|---|---|
| Sieve (chalni) | Dry powder | Sifting atta, maida, besan, icing sugar |
| Strainer | Liquid, fine mesh | Chai leaves, curd whey, stock |
| Colander | Water, large holes | Draining rice, pasta, washed dal |
This guide stays on the first row. Chai straining lives in our tea strainer guide.
Dairy straining lives in the curd strainer comparison. Different tools, different pages.
The names, from dictionaries rather than from blogs
The Hindi and Urdu word is recorded in Platts. His entry reads "chhalni, a sieve, a strainer".
Platts also logs the idiom. "Chhalni hona" means to be full of holes, like a sieve.
Molesworth gives the Marathi word as "calani, a sieve or strainer". He adds a second sense that fits perfectly.
That second sense is figurative. It means searching, sifting, investigating.
The Tamil Lexicon does something better. Its entry for "calladai" lists the cousins in one line.
| Language | Word, as the dictionary prints it | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hindi and Urdu | chhalni (also chhanni) | Platts, p. 463 and p. 465 |
| Marathi | calani | Molesworth, p. 280 |
| Tamil | calladai | Tamil Lexicon, p. 1323 |
| Telugu | tjalleda | Tamil Lexicon, cognate line |
| Kannada | jalladi | Kittel, p. 680 |
| Malayalam | callada | Tamil Lexicon, cognate line |
One more Tamil entry earns its place here. "Calladai-k-kalivu" is glossed as coarse grit.
That is the stuff left sitting in your sieve. Tamil gave it a name. Hold on to it, because section five is about exactly that.
Mesh or Micron: How Sieve Sizes Are Actually Named
Short answer: India names a sieve by the size of its hole, not by its mesh count. The standard is IS 460, and it writes sizes like "425-micron IS Sieve". Mesh counts wires per inch, so it shifts with wire thickness. Micron is the honest number.
Sellers love the word mesh. It sounds technical and costs nothing to print.
The Bureau of Indian Standards took a different route.
What IS 460 actually says
IS 460 Part 1 covers wire cloth test sieves. It is the Indian rulebook for sieve sizes.
Clause 1.2 sets the range. It runs from 125 mm down to 32 microns.
Clause 2.1 sets the naming. A sieve is designated by the nominal size of its aperture.
The standard gives two examples. One is a 5.60-mm IS Sieve. The other is a 425-micron IS Sieve.
Clause 2.2 splits the units. Holes of 1 mm and above are written in millimetres.
Anything smaller is written in microns. So a kitchen chalni belongs in microns.
📊 Mesh is a count, not a size. A mesh number tells you how many wires sit in one inch. Thicken the wire and the holes shrink while the mesh number stays put. That is why IS 460 designates a sieve by its aperture instead.
A safe mesh-to-micron crosswalk
You still need to read mesh numbers, because sellers print them. Luckily India's food standards print both.
Every pair below is copied straight from FSSAI's own cereals chapter. No conversion of ours is involved.
| Mesh, as FSSAI prints it | Aperture, as FSSAI prints it | Where the pair appears |
|---|---|---|
| 10 mesh | 2.0 mm | Couscous, clause 2.4.25 |
| 18 mesh | 1 mm | Ragi flour, clause 2.4.34 |
| 20 mesh | 0.85 mm | Degermed maize meal |
| 25 mesh | 0.71 mm | Degermed maize meal |
| 30 mesh | 0.60 mm | Couscous, clause 2.4.25 |
| 35 mesh | 500 microns | Atta, clause 2.4.1 |
| 70 mesh | 212 microns | Maida, clause 2.4.2 |
Read that last pair twice. The jump from atta to maida is 500 microns down to 212.
What Mesh Size Does Atta Need? The Number Is Already in the Law
Short answer: Indian law defines atta and maida by the sieve they pass. Atta must send at least 98 per cent of itself through a 500 micron IS sieve, which is 35 mesh. Maida must send 98 per cent through a 212 micron IS sieve, which is 70 mesh. Your kitchen chalni sits between the two.
This is the part no sieve listicle mentions. It is sitting in plain sight.
FSSAI's Chapter 2.4 covers cereals and cereal products. Several clauses carry a line called granularity.
Granularity is a sieve test. It is written as a percentage that must pass a named hole.
The flour ladder, clause by clause
| Flour | FSSAI clause | Sieve requirement in the standard |
|---|---|---|
| Atta (wheat flour) | 2.4.1 | Not less than 98 per cent by mass through a 500 micron IS sieve (35 mesh) |
| Maida (refined wheat flour) | 2.4.2 | Not less than 98 per cent through a 212 micron IS sieve (70 mesh) |
| Durum wheat maida | 2.4.2(4) | Minimum 80 per cent through a 315 micron silk gauze or textile sieve |
| Suji or rawa | 2.4.3 | No particle size parameter at all |
| Besan | 2.4.4 | No particle size parameter at all |
| Sago flour | 2.4.28 | Not less than 95 per cent through a 100 mesh sieve |
| Chana sattu | 2.4.33 | 100 per cent through a 35 mesh sieve |
| Ragi flour | 2.4.34 | Shall pass through a 1 mm sieve (18 mesh) |
| Multigrain atta | 2.4.37 | 98 per cent through 40 mesh |
| Mixed millet flour | 2.4.38 | 98 per cent through 40 mesh |
Two rows in that table are blank on purpose. Suji and besan carry no sieve rule in law.
So nobody can tell you the legal mesh for besan. There isn't one.
📊 A household chalni is roughly the atta line. The legal boundary between atta and maida is a sieve: 500 microns versus 212 microns. A common kitchen flour sieve sits near the coarser of the two. That is why sifted atta still looks like atta.
One caveat printed in the standard itself
Both the atta and maida clauses carry the same footnote. Granularity does not apply to intermediate products.
An intermediate product is flour not meant for direct eating. Mill-gate bulk flour can be one.
So the packet on your shelf is covered. A sack bought loose may not be.
The mill that made the flour set its particle size first. If that interests you, read our home atta chakki guide.
Should You Sieve Your Atta Finer? The Data Says No
Short answer: Finer atta is not better atta. CSIR-CFTRI milled wheat at six settings and measured the chapatis. The finest flour produced the most acrylamide and drank the most water. The tasting panel preferred the middle settings, not the finest.
Most of us treat fine as a compliment. Fine atta, fine sieve, fine result.
A 2026 study out of Mysuru put that belief on a bench.
What they did
The team worked at CSIR-CFTRI, in the flour milling department. They set a stone mill to six gaps.
The gaps ran from 0.2 mm up to 1.6 mm. That gave six attas, fine to coarse.
Each atta was tested, then made into chapati. The chapatis were measured and tasted.
What they found
| Measure | Finest atta (0.2 mm gap) | Coarsest atta (1.6 mm gap) |
|---|---|---|
| Particle size | Under 100 microns | Coarse |
| Damaged starch | 25.97 per cent | 11.15 per cent |
| Reducing sugars | 8.91 g per 100 g | 3.12 g per 100 g |
| Acrylamide in the chapati | 88.17 micrograms per kg | 41.01 micrograms per kg |
| Water absorption | 90.52 per cent | 69.2 per cent |
Grinding finer damages more starch. Damaged starch releases reducing sugars.
Reducing sugars are one half of the browning reaction. Acrylamide forms on the hot tawa alongside it.
📊 A 53 per cent swing, from one milling setting. Acrylamide in the chapati fell from 88.17 to 41.01 micrograms per kilogram. That was the move from finest flour to coarsest. Nutrition barely moved across the six samples, except for moisture.
The part that matters at your counter
The sensory panel did not pick the extremes. It picked the 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm samples.
That is the middle of the range. Not the finest, and not the coarsest.
Water absorption tells the same story. Very fine atta wanted 90 per cent water.
Dough that thirsty is hard to handle. Anyone who kneads by hand knows the feeling.
If your dough behaves strangely, particle size is a suspect worth checking. Our atta kneader guide covers the machine side.
So use the chalni to break lumps and catch grit. Do not use it to chase a finer flour than the mill made.
One honest limit on all of this. The study measured chapati, not cake or puri.
What Stays in the Sieve Is Not Waste
Short answer: The coarse bits left in the chalni are bran-rich, not dirt. Researchers sieved buckwheat flour into five size fractions. Protein and ash fell as the particles got finer, while starch rose. Tipping the residue into the bin tips out the denser part.
Watch anyone sift atta. The last move is always the same.
The residue gets tapped into the bin. It looks like leftovers. It is not.
The measurement
A 2026 paper in the journal Foods milled buckwheat, then sieved it. Five fractions came out.
The fractions ran from 60 to 80 mesh up to 200 mesh and finer. Each was analysed.
The pattern was clean. Protein and ash fell as the particles got finer.
Starch went the other way. It rose as the flour got finer.
Ash is the mineral fraction. In a cereal it tracks the bran.
So the coarse fraction carried the protein and the minerals. The fine fraction carried the starch.
📊 Say the species out loud. This was measured on buckwheat, not on wheat. The direction is a well-known milling effect, but the exact numbers belong to buckwheat. Treat it as a reason to keep the residue, not as a wheat figure.
What to do with the grit instead
Tamil already named it: calladai-k-kalivu, coarse grit. Here is what it is good for.
- Stir it back in. For roti and paratha, coarse is not a fault. Put it back in the bowl.
- Save it for thepla or missi roti. Doughs with besan or masala hide texture easily.
- Use it to dust the rolling board. Coarse flour dusts better than fine and burns less on the tawa.
- Bin it only if it is not flour. Stones, husk, string and insects are the real reason to sieve.
The same logic runs through baking with whole wheat. Our 100 per cent atta bread guide leans on it.
Same idea, different powder. A coffee grinder is a particle-size tool you set by hand.
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Shop NowBaristas sort grind by microns, exactly as IS 460 sorts sieves. Espresso wants fine, French press wants coarse.
Can a Chalni Remove Ghun and Weevils from Atta?
Short answer: A sieve catches adult insects. It does not catch eggs, tiny larvae or insect fragments, because those pass straight through the mesh. Indian law counts dead insects as filth too. So sieving makes infested atta look clean without making it clean.
This is the most common reason Indian homes reach for a chalni. It is also the most oversold one.
The physics is simple. A sieve sorts by size, and nothing else.
What the mesh can and cannot stop
An adult flour beetle is far larger than 500 microns. It stays in the sieve.
Eggs and first-stage larvae are much smaller. They ride through with the flour.
Fragments are smaller still. Sieving does nothing about them at all.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology built a test for this. Their method uses qPCR on stored wheat flour.
The point of that method is coverage. It detects every life stage of the red flour beetle.
They built it because counting adults misses most of the problem. A visual check is not a clean bill.
📊 There is a published tolerance, and it is not zero. The IIFPT team cites a US FDA limit. It is 75 insect fragments, or about 3 adults, per 50 g of flour. Their own test samples came out at 1.74 and 0.046 adult insects per 5 g.
What Indian law asks of the flour
FSSAI's atta and maida clauses use one standing phrase. Read it carefully.
The flour must be free from living insects. It must also be free from filth.
Filth is defined in the same line. It means impurities of animal origin, including dead insects.
So both halves matter. Removing the living ones does not meet the second half.
The honest verdict is short. Sieve heavily infested atta into the bin, not into the dough.
Where the real fix lives
Sieving is a symptom check. Storage is the cure.
Airtight, dry and dark beats any mesh. Small batches beat big sacks in a humid month.
We wrote the long version separately. See how to store rice, dal and atta and our airtight container picks.
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Shop NowSteel, Nylon or Plastic: What to Check Before You Buy
Short answer: Steel is the safe default for a kitchen sieve. In India, stainless steel utensils carry a compulsory ISI mark under IS 14756. Two steels are legal for them, so the popular "only 304 is food grade" line is wrong here. And BIS's own utensil grouping never names a sieve.
Material choice for a sieve is mostly boring. The regulation around it is not.
The rule that covers steel utensils
India notified a quality control order for cookware in 2024. It is S.O. 1365(E).
Under it, stainless steel utensils must conform to IS 14756. They must also carry the BIS Standard Mark.
The order's table lists five goods. Steel utensils, aluminium utensils, steel sinks and two kinds of can.
The 202 versus 304 myth, corrected
You will read that only 304 steel is food grade. In Indian law that is not the test.
BIS spells out the permitted raw materials. Utensil steel must meet IS 5522 or IS 15997.
IS 5522 covers stainless steel sheets and strips for utensils. IS 15997 covers low nickel austenitic steel.
Low nickel is the 200 series family. So it is a permitted utensil steel, not a violation.
Both raw materials are themselves under compulsory BIS certification. That is where the real check sits.
📊 A sieve is not on the list. The BIS product manual for IS 14756 groups covered utensils as cooking, serving, table and storage. A sieve or strainer is not named in that grouping. So do not expect an ISI mark on one by default.
Steel, nylon or plastic in practice
| Material | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Stainless steel mesh | Everything dry, plus hot and wet work | Dented rims stop sitting flat on a bowl |
| Plastic frame, steel mesh | Light daily atta sifting | Mesh often glued, not clamped, so it loosens |
| Nylon mesh | Very fine powders, icing sugar | Stretches over time, so the hole size drifts |
The same steel rule we quoted above shows up on other tools. Our spatula material guide walks through it for a palta.
Shopping links: stainless steel atta chalni, fine mesh steel sieve and flour sifter on Amazon.
Which Sieves Should an Indian Kitchen Own?
Short answer: Two, for most homes. One everyday atta chalni near the 35 mesh mark, and one fine sieve for maida, besan and icing sugar. Add a coarse one only if you sift rava or home-milled flour often.
Sieve sets sell in fives. Most kitchens use two of them.
The short list
- An everyday atta chalni. Wide, shallow, steel mesh, roughly the 35 mesh or 500 micron zone. This is the one that lives out. See atta chalni options on Amazon.
- One fine sieve. For maida, besan and icing sugar, plus dusting a cake. See fine mesh sieves on Amazon.
- A coarse sieve, only if you need it. Useful for rava and for flour milled at home. See coarse sieves on Amazon.
- Skip the five-piece set unless you bake weekly. Three of the five will stay in the drawer. Compare sieve sets on Amazon.
How to check one before you pay
- Hold it to a window. The weave should look even, with no wider patch.
- Press the mesh centre. It should spring back, not stay dished.
- Check where mesh meets rim. A clamped or welded edge outlasts a glued one.
- Rest it on your usual bowl. A rim that does not sit flat will cost you flour every time.
- Prefer a listed hole size. Microns or mesh, printed. Vagueness is a choice the seller made.
Keeping it usable
Brush the mesh dry before it ever meets water. Wet flour in a mesh sets like paste.
Dry it upside down on a rack. Trapped water is what marks a cheap weave.
Retire a sieve when the mesh sags. A stretched mesh has quietly changed its hole size.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What mesh size sieve do I need for atta?
Around 35 mesh, which is a 500 micron hole. That is the number Indian law uses. FSSAI clause 2.4.1 requires at least 98 per cent of atta to pass a 500 micron IS sieve. A household chalni sits near that zone. That is why sifted atta still behaves like atta, rather than turning into maida.
Is a finer sieve better for atta?
No, and there is measured evidence against it. A 2026 CSIR-CFTRI study milled wheat at six settings. The finest flour, under 100 microns, gave chapatis with 88.17 micrograms of acrylamide per kg. The coarsest gave 41.01. The finest flour also needed 90.52 per cent water absorption. The tasting panel preferred the middle settings, at 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm.
What is the difference between atta and maida in sieve terms?
Exactly 500 microns versus 212 microns. FSSAI clause 2.4.1 requires 98 per cent of atta to pass a 500 micron IS sieve, which is 35 mesh. Clause 2.4.2 requires 98 per cent of maida to pass a 212 micron IS sieve, which is 70 mesh. The legal distinction between the two flours is, quite literally, the size of a hole.
Should I throw away what stays in the sieve?
Usually no. Unless it is stones, husk, string or insects, the residue is the coarse bran-rich part of your flour. Researchers sieved buckwheat flour into five size fractions. Protein and ash fell as the particles got finer, while starch rose. So the coarse residue carried more of the protein and minerals. Stir it back in for roti and paratha.
Does sieving remove ghun or weevils from atta?
It removes the adults and nothing else. Eggs, tiny larvae and insect fragments are smaller than the mesh and pass straight through with the flour. Indian law also counts dead insects as filth, so removing the living ones does not make infested atta compliant. Heavily infested flour should go in the bin, and the real fix is airtight, dry, small-batch storage.
Is a steel sieve required to carry an ISI mark in India?
Not necessarily. India's 2024 cookware order, S.O. 1365(E), makes the BIS Standard Mark compulsory for stainless steel utensils under IS 14756. But the BIS product manual for that standard groups covered utensils four ways. They are cooking, serving, table and storage. It never names a sieve or strainer. So do not treat a missing mark on a sieve as proof of anything.
Is 202 stainless steel safe for a kitchen sieve in India?
Indian law permits it. BIS states that steel for utensils must conform to IS 5522 or to IS 15997. IS 15997 is the standard for low nickel austenitic steel. That is the 200 series family. Both raw materials are themselves under compulsory BIS certification. The popular claim that only 304 is food grade is not how the Indian rule is written.
Do I need to sift maida before baking a cake?
For lumps and for even mixing, yes, and that is the honest benefit. What sifting will not do is make the flour finer. Maida already has to pass a 212 micron sieve to be sold as maida. Sift to break clumps. Sift to blend in cocoa or baking powder evenly. Sift to loosen flour that has packed down in the jar.
Sources & References
- Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, Chapter 2.4 Cereals and Cereal Products - clause 2.4.1 Atta requires not less than 98 per cent by mass to pass a 500 micron I.S. sieve (35 mesh); clause 2.4.2 Maida requires not less than 98 per cent to pass a 212 micron IS sieve (70 mesh); clause 2.4.3 Semolina and clause 2.4.4 Besan carry no particle size parameter; clause 2.4.28 Sago flour 95 per cent through 100 mesh; clause 2.4.33 Chana Sattu 100 per cent through 35 mesh; clause 2.4.34 Ragi flour through a 1 mm sieve (18 mesh); clauses 2.4.37 and 2.4.38 98 per cent through 40 mesh; and the standing requirement that the product be free from living insects and filth, impurities of animal origin including dead insects — Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
- IS 460 (Part 1): 1985 Test Sieves, Part 1 Wire Cloth Test Sieves - clause 1.2 applies to aperture sizes from 125 mm down to 32 micrometres; clause 2.1 test sieves of metal wire cloth are designated by the nominal size of aperture followed by the inscription IS Sieve, with the examples 5.60-mm IS Sieve and 425-micron IS Sieve; clause 2.2 apertures of 1 mm and above are expressed in millimetres and smaller apertures in micrometres — Bureau of Indian Standards, committee CED 55, via the public.resource.org BIS collection
- Stone-milling particle size drives acrylamide formation level in chapati - stone mill gaps of 0.2 to 1.6 mm produced attas whose damaged starch fell from 25.97 to 11.15 per cent, reducing sugars from 8.91 to 3.12 g per 100 g, farinograph water absorption from 90.52 to 69.2 per cent, and acrylamide in the resulting chapati from 88.17 to 41.01 micrograms per kg, a 53 per cent reduction, with the sensory panel favouring the 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm samples — V. Hitlamani and A. Ashok Inamdar, Department of Flour Milling, Baking and Confectionery Technology, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute Mysuru, Food Chemistry 2026;516:149276
- Milling and Differential Sieving to Impact Buckwheat Flour Techno-Functional Properties and Steamed Buckwheat Cake Quality - buckwheat was milled and sieved into fractions of 60 to 80, 80 to 100, 100 to 150, 150 to 200 and 200 mesh and finer, and the protein and ash contents decreased with decreasing particle size while the starch content increased, with cakes from 100 mesh and finer flour scoring best — C. Niu, S. Sarikaya, M. Ren, J. Feng and F. Ye, College of Food Science, Southwest University, Foods 2026;15(9):1501
- A Molecular Approach for the Detection and Quantification of Tribolium castaneum Infestation in Stored Wheat Flour - a qPCR method capable of detecting all the ontogenic stages of the red flour beetle in stored wheat flour, noting the United States Food and Drug Administration maximum permissible limit of 75 insect fragments or approximately 3 adults per 50 g of flour, with the study's own unknown samples measuring 1.74 and 0.046 adult insects in 5 g — A. Negi, A. Anandharaj, S. Kalakandan and M. Rajamani, Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology Thanjavur, Food Technology and Biotechnology 2021;59(1):112-121
- Bureau of Indian Standards Central Marks Department-III letter CMD-III/16 of 5 July 2024, reproducing the Cookware, Utensils and Cans for Foods and Beverages (Quality Control) Order, 2024, S.O. 1365(E) - stainless steel utensils are compulsorily required to conform to IS 14756 and to bear the Standard Mark, and the stainless steel used shall conform to IS 5522, Stainless Steel Sheets and Strips for Utensils, or IS 15997, Low nickel austenitic stainless steel sheet and strip for Utensils and Kitchen appliances — Bureau of Indian Standards, for the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade
- BIS Product Manual for IS 14756 Stainless Steel Utensils, PM/IS 14756/7 of January 2025 - utensils covered by a licence are grouped by type as cooking utensils, serving utensils, table utensils and storage utensils, and by class as Light, Medium, Heavy or Commercial; no sieve or strainer category appears in the grouping — Bureau of Indian Standards, Central Marks Department
- A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English - page 463 gives chhalni, a sieve, a strainer, and the idiom chhalni hona, to be pierced or perforated, to be full of holes like a sieve; page 465 gives chhanni as a synonym; page 463 also gives chhalna, a strainer, a cloth through which anything is sifted — John T. Platts, 1884, digitised by the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, University of Chicago
- A Dictionary, Marathi and English - page 280 gives calani, a sieve or strainer, with the further senses sifting and, figuratively, searching, sifting, investigating — James T. Molesworth, 1857, digitised by the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, University of Chicago
- Tamil Lexicon - page 1323 gives calladai, sieve, with the cognates listed as Telugu tjalleda, Kannada jalladi and Malayalam callada; the same page gives calladai-k-kan, holes of a sieve, and page S267 gives calladai-k-kalivu, coarse grit — Tamil Lexicon, University of Madras, digitised by the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, University of Chicago
- A Kannada-English Dictionary - page 680 gives jalladi, a sieve — Ferdinand Kittel, 1894, digitised by the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, University of Chicago
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