Work out flour milling recovery instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.
Extraction rate is flour as a percentage of wheat milled — 72-76% for straight-grade white flour, up to 95% for atta. Flour plus bran should account for nearly all the wheat; the shortfall is invisible loss from moisture evaporation, dust and spillage, and above about 1% it signals a problem.
Extraction rate
Extraction % = flour x 100 / wheat milled
Balance
Total recovery % = (flour + bran) x 100 / wheat; invisible loss = 100 - total recovery
Pushing extraction raises ash and bran specks in the flour, hurting colour and baking quality. Each grade has an ash ceiling that caps how far extraction can go.
0.3-0.8% in a well-run mill, mainly conditioning water evaporating during milling. Above 1.5% suggests leaks, dust escape or weighing errors.