Maida, maida flour, or maida mavu is a type of wheat flour originated from the Indian subcontinent.[1][2] It is a super-refined[citation needed] wheat flour used in Indian cuisine to make pastries and other bakery items like breads and biscuits. Some maida may have tapioca starch added[citation needed].
Maida is made from the endosperm: the starchy white part of the grain. The bran is separated from the germ and endosperm which is then refined by passing through a sieve of 80 mesh per inch (31 mesh per centimeter).[3] Although naturally yellowish due to pigments present in wheat, maida is typically bleached, either naturally due to atmospheric oxygen, or with any of a number of flour bleaching agents.[4]
While it is milled from winter wheat that has a high gluten content, heat generated during the milling process results in denaturing of the protein, limiting its use in the preparation of leavened breads.[5]
A common maida contains alloxan, which itself is banned in a lot of countries for usage in food, added as a bleaching agent or formed as a byproduct of bleaching.[6] While it is a minor product of xanthophyll oxidation, there is no evidence that trace amounts of alloxan formed comprise a health risk.[7]
^Schwarcz, Joe (2003), Alloxan(PDF), Department of Chemistry McGill University: Office of Science and Society, p. 1, archived from the original on September 15, 2011, retrieved September 10, 2011{{citation}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
