The work is concerned with the effects of applying the drum detachers as flake disrupters in industrial wheat flour mills. The stocks entering and leaving the drum detachers applied on the different reduction passages in two industrial mills were intercepted and employed in the experiments. The changes in the flour release and flour ash content were followed. The results show that the drum detachers are effective in disrupting the flakes formed in the smooth roller mills grinding zone. However, the contribution of the drum detachers to the overall milling efficiency is in close correlation with the nature of the formed flakes. If the flakes are primarily composed of endosperm particles, the employment of drum detacher results in a statistically significant increase of the flour yields without deterioration of flour quality. If flakes, formed on the end passages of the reduction system, contain large portion of branny particles, the increase of the flour ash content following the drum detacher is statistically significant. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 031014]