At a time when every atta brand claims to be ‘natural’ and ‘pure’, one Pune-based farm went further – and got the independent certification to prove it. This is the story of Two Brothers Organic Farms, the ancient Khapli wheat they refused to let the world forget, and why 69,010 Indian families have made the switch.
Walk into any grocery store in an Indian metro today and the ‘healthy atta’ shelf looks more crowded than ever. Multigrain. Whole wheat. High fibre. Fortified. The claims are bold, the packaging is aspirational, and the price points have climbed steadily to match the wellness positioning. But ask a food scientist what most of these flours are actually tested for, and the answer may surprise you.
One thing that almost none of them are tested for? Glyphosate – the world’s most widely used agricultural weedicide, and one that the World Health Organization has classified as a probable human carcinogen. In a country where wheat is consumed at virtually every meal in the form of rotis, parathas, and chapatis, this is not a small omission. It is a gap in consumer trust that the Indian food industry has largely declined to address.
Which is precisely why what Two Brothers Organic Farms did with their Khapli Atta – also widely known as Emmer wheat flour, ancient grain atta, or heirloom wheat atta – deserves far more attention than it has received. In a market built on claims, Two Brothers built on proof. And the proof, in this case, comes in the form of a certification that no other Indian atta brand currently holds.
What Is Khapli Wheat – And Why Did India Lose It?
Khapli wheat, known scientifically as Triticum dicoccum and commonly referred to as Emmer wheat, is one of the oldest cultivated grains in recorded human history. A 10,000-year-old heirloom grain, it sustained civilisations across the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean long before modern agricultural science began engineering wheat for yield and shelf-life rather than nutrition and digestibility.
In India, Khapli wheat was once grown widely across the Deccan plateau and was a dietary staple for generations of farming communities in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and parts of Madhya Pradesh. It was the grain that filled the thalis of rural households, that made rotis which sat lightly in the stomach, that powered agricultural communities through long working days without the mid-afternoon energy crashes that have become so common today.
Then came the Green Revolution of the 1960s. Driven by the urgent need to address food scarcity, India pivoted rapidly to high-yield hybrid wheat varieties developed through intensive cross-breeding programmes. These new wheats grew faster, produced more grain per acre, and were easier to mill into the fine white flour that urban consumers increasingly preferred. The tradeoff – in nutritional density, gluten structure, and chemical dependency – was not fully understood at the time, and perhaps not fully reckoned with even today.
Khapli, with its slower growth cycle, lower yield per acre, and hull that requires additional processing, was quietly phased out. By the 1990s, it had been relegated to what agricultural historians sometimes describe as a ‘famine crop’ – grown in scattered patches, consumed locally, entirely invisible to the modern urban consumer. A grain that had nourished India for ten millennia had, within a single generation, become functionally extinct in the commercial food system.
This is the grain that Two Brothers Organic Farms chose to build a business around.
The Glyphosate Problem No One Was Talking About
To understand why the Two Brothers Khapli Atta story matters, it helps to understand what most Indian consumers don’t know about their everyday flour – and what most Indian food brands have chosen not to tell them.
Modern wheat farming in India – as in most parts of the world – relies heavily on glyphosate-based herbicides to manage weeds and accelerate pre-harvest drying. Glyphosate residues do not evaporate cleanly. They can persist through the milling process and end up, in measurable quantities, in the flour that lands on your kitchen shelf. Regulatory bodies across different countries continue to debate what constitutes a ‘safe’ level of exposure, but a growing body of peer-reviewed research links chronic glyphosate exposure to disruption of the gut microbiome, interference with hormone regulation, and – in some longitudinal studies – associations with certain cancers.
The uncomfortable truth is that when you eat a roti made from commercially available wheat flour in India today, you likely have no way of knowing whether the wheat it came from was treated with glyphosate, at what stage of growth, in what quantities, or what residue remains after milling. This information is not on the label. It is not required to be. And the vast majority of brands – even those selling premium ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ atta – have not sought independent certification to verify it.
Two Brothers did not just avoid glyphosate in their farming practices. They submitted their Khapli Atta for independent third-party testing and secured certification from The Detox Project – an internationally recognised, science-led certification body that tests for glyphosate and AMPA residues to the highest available sensitivity standards. The result: Two Brothers’ Khapli Atta is certified Glyphosate Residue Free. They are the first and, to date, the only Indian atta brand to hold this certification.
In a market saturated with unverifiable wellness claims, this is a meaningful distinction. It is the difference between saying your flour is clean and being able to prove it.
The Nutritional Case: What the Numbers Actually Show
The glyphosate-free certification is the most distinctive credential Two Brothers’ Khapli Atta carries – but it is not the only reason 69,000 families have switched their kitchen staple. The nutritional profile of Khapli wheat flour is, by measurable standards, meaningfully superior to commercially available modern wheat flour across several dimensions that directly affect how you feel after eating.
Lab comparisons between Two Brothers’ Emmer wheat flour and standard market wheat flour reveal the following: Khapli Atta contains approximately 7.8% dietary fibre versus 3.1% in commercial flour – nearly 50% more fibre. On gluten content, Khapli registers at 5.78% versus 13.24% in regular atta – roughly 50% lower gluten. These are not marginal differences. They translate directly into measurable differences in how the body processes each roti.
Higher fibre content means slower digestion, prolonged satiety, and a more stable blood glucose response. The lower and structurally weaker gluten in Khapli – what nutritionists sometimes describe as moderately connected versus the tightly bound, elastic gluten network of modern bread wheat – means the flour is considerably gentler on the digestive system. People who experience bloating, heaviness, or discomfort after eating regular wheat rotis frequently report a marked improvement when they switch to Khapli Atta, even though Khapli is not a gluten-free atta. The difference lies not in the absence of gluten, but in its nature.
Two Brothers Khapli Atta is also classified as a low GI atta – its glycaemic index is significantly lower than that of modern wheat flour, meaning it releases glucose gradually rather than in the sharp spikes associated with refined or even standard whole wheat flour. For the 77 million Indians living with diabetes, the tens of millions more in the pre-diabetic range, and the vast majority of urban Indians who experience pronounced post-lunch energy dips, the distinction between a low GI atta and a standard atta is not academic. It is felt, meal after meal, day after day.
The long-term compounding effect is equally striking. Eat just two Khapli rotis daily, and over three months, that amounts to 400g less gluten consumed and measurably improved gut health. At six months, 876g of additional dietary fibre – with blood sugar and energy levels stabilising noticeably. At twelve months, 2,170g of extra protein – contributing to muscle repair and metabolic function over time. These are not projections based on marketing assumptions. They are arithmetic derived from the nutritional data that Two Brothers publishes openly.
From a Single Farm to 69,010 Families: The Category Creation Story
When Two Brothers Organic Farms first began sourcing, milling, and selling Khapli wheat flour in 2016, there was no market category to enter. There were no competitors to benchmark against, no established consumer vocabulary for ancient grain atta or heirloom wheat flour, no retail infrastructure that understood how to position it, and no guarantee that urban Indian consumers – accustomed to fine, white, fast-cooking flour – would accept a nuttier, denser, more complex-tasting alternative.
The founders had to build the category before they could lead it. That meant years of consumer education: explaining why Khapli dough needs slightly more water than regular atta, why the rotis cook a little differently, why the taste is nuttier and the texture more rustic – and why all of these things are features, not flaws. It meant investing in supply chain infrastructure at a time when there was no proven demand, working directly with farmers to revive Khapli cultivation at scale, and choosing a D2C distribution model that prioritised traceability over reach.
Today, that infrastructure spans a 7,000-acre farming footprint. Two Brothers sources Khapli wheat directly from farmers they work with and train, mills it using traditional stone-grinding methods that preserve nutritional integrity, and ships it directly to consumers through their own platform – ensuring that the grain leaving the mill is identical to what arrives at the customer’s door. Full farm-to-fork traceability in the Indian wheat industry is not the norm. For Two Brothers, it is the foundation.
The results speak in numbers that are difficult to argue with. Over 69,000 Indian families now make their daily rotis with Two Brothers’ Khapli Atta. The product has accumulated nearly 1,500 verified customer reviews with a 91% five-star rating – a level of social proof that is genuinely rare in the premium food segment. Customer feedback consistently references three outcomes: improved digestion, reduced post-meal heaviness, and more stable energy through the day. These are outcomes that no amount of packaging design can manufacture. They are the product of a grain that is, by its nature, easier for the human body to process.
Stone Ground, Single Ingredient, Nothing Hidden
Read the ingredient list on Two Brothers’ Khapli Atta and you will find exactly one entry: Khapli (Emmer Long) Wheat. No additives. No fillers. No preservatives. No fortification agents or anti-caking compounds. In a category where ingredient lists routinely hide blending ratios, processing aids, and undisclosed additives behind the broad shield of ‘natural flavours’ or ‘permitted additives’, this single-ingredient declaration is itself a product statement.
The stone-grinding process that Two Brothers uses to mill their Khapli wheat is equally significant. Unlike the high-speed roller milling used in commercial flour production – a process that generates considerable heat and in doing so degrades heat-sensitive B vitamins, natural wheat germ oils, and a portion of the dietary fibre – stone grinding is a cold, slow process. The millstone works at a speed that preserves the wheat’s natural nutritional architecture. What you get in the bag is structurally closer to what comes out of the field. The bran, the germ, and the endosperm remain in their natural proportions, unmolested by industrial processing.
The packaging, too, is designed for a specific purpose: moisture retention. Khapli atta, because it retains its natural oils through stone grinding, has a shorter shelf life than commercial flour that has had its oils stripped out. Two Brothers’ packaging is engineered to extend that window while maintaining the flour’s integrity – a detail that matters more than it might appear, because it reflects a brand philosophy oriented around what is real rather than what is convenient.
What ‘Clean Label’ Actually Means in 2025
The phrase ‘clean label’ has become one of the most overused – and least meaningful – terms in the food industry. Brands attach it to products that are simply free of artificial colours. Others use it to mean nothing more than the absence of monosodium glutamate. The term has been stretched so far that it has, for many consumers, stopped meaning anything at all.
Two Brothers’ approach to clean label atta is more rigorous than the industry average. Their Khapli Atta is GMO-free. It is free of additives, fillers, and preservatives. It is sourced from a 10,000-year-old heirloom grain variety that has never been genetically modified or hybridised for commercial yield. It is stone ground using a method that preserves rather than strips nutritional content. It is certified glyphosate-free by an independent, internationally accredited body. And it is sold directly to consumers with full supply chain traceability, from the specific farms where the grain is grown to the mill where it is processed.
For a generation of Indian consumers who are increasingly reading labels, questioning ingredient sources, and demanding food that is traceable rather than merely marketed as traceable, Two Brothers’ Khapli Atta offers something that is, in the current Indian food landscape, genuinely uncommon: a product where every claim is substantiated, every process is documented, and every certification can be independently verified.
The Ancient Grain Comeback Is Not a Trend – It’s a Correction
The growing interest in ancient grain atta, heirloom wheat flour, and heritage grain products is frequently framed in the media as a wellness trend – the kind of category that experiences a three-year peak, generates a wave of copycat products, and then fades as the next superfood arrives. Two Brothers’ trajectory, and the deeper story of why Khapli wheat resonates so strongly with the consumers who discover it, suggests something more fundamental is happening.
What we are witnessing with Khapli Atta is not a trend. It is a correction. Modern hybrid wheat was engineered to solve a specific 20th-century problem: feeding a rapidly growing population at scale. It succeeded. But the nutritional compromises embedded in that engineering – higher gluten content, faster glycaemic response, dependence on herbicides, loss of dietary fibre – are now showing up as health problems in the population that was fed by it. Bloating, digestive discomfort, blood sugar instability, and inflammatory conditions linked to modern wheat consumption are not fringe concerns. They are documented, widespread, and increasingly driving consumers to look for alternatives.
Khapli wheat is not an alternative that was invented to meet this demand. It is the original – the grain that existed before the compromises were made, that never needed to be engineered because it was already fit for purpose. Two Brothers did not create Khapli Atta. They recovered it, scaled it, certified it, and made it available to the modern Indian consumer at a price and quality standard that the market could sustain.
Nearly a decade on, with 69,000 families, nearly 1,500 reviews, and India’s only glyphosate-free atta certification to their name, the data makes the case that Two Brothers made the right bet. The next time you pick up an atta packet – any atta packet – it is worth pausing to ask one simple question: what has this flour actually been tested for?
Two Brothers’ Khapli Atta has a very clear answer. Most others don’t.