MyKitchenRadarMyKitchenRadar is a family kitchen app that tells you how many days each food at home will last, like "rice: about 6–11 days", and reminds everyone before it runs out. For dal there is no survey figure, so this guide works from India's dietary guidelines and says so on every table.
To get a number for your own family, use the free estimator.
Read this first. Every dal figure on this page is a recommended amount from ICMR-NIN's Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024. It is not a measure of what families eat. "Dal" here means all pulses and beans together: toor, moong, urad, chana, masoor, rajma and the rest, weighed raw.
How much dal per person, by age
Recommended pulses and beans, raw weight (ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024, Table 1.6).
| Person | Per day | Per month (30 days) |
|---|---|---|
| Man, sedentary | 85 g | 2.6 kg |
| Man, moderate work | 120 g | 3.6 kg |
| Woman, sedentary | 60 g | 1.8 kg |
| Woman, moderate work | 90 g | 2.7 kg |
| Pregnant woman | 75 g | 2.3 kg |
| Breastfeeding woman | 85 g | 2.6 kg |
| Child 1–3 | 50 g | 1.5 kg |
| Child 4–6 | 60 g | 1.8 kg |
| Child 7–9 | 65 g | 2.0 kg |
| Boy / girl 10–12 | 90 g / 85 g | 2.7 kg / 2.6 kg |
| Boy / girl 13–15 | 130 g / 100 g | 3.9 kg / 3.0 kg |
| Boy / girl 16–18 | 150 g / 105 g | 4.5 kg / 3.2 kg |
| Man / woman over 60 | 75 g / 70 g | 2.3 kg / 2.1 kg |
The guideline adds that non-vegetarians may replace 30 g of the day's pulses with meat or eggs. A sedentary man who does that needs 55 g of pulses a day, about 1.7 kg a month.
How much dal a family needs, and how long a stock lasts
The families, in adult shares:
| Family | Who | Adult shares |
|---|---|---|
| 1 man | adult man | 1.00 |
| 1 woman | adult woman | 0.79 |
| 2 adults | man and woman | 1.79 |
| 3 | 2 adults and a child of 8 | 2.60 |
| 4 | 2 adults and children of 8 and 5 | 3.24 |
| 5 | family of 4 and a grandmother of 70 | 3.97 |
| 6 | family of 5 and a grandfather of 72 | 4.79 |
All adults are sedentary.
| Family | Guideline amounts added up | App's first guess | 1 kg lasts | 2 kg lasts | 5 kg lasts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 man | 85 g a day, 2.6 kg a month | 85 g a day, 2.6 kg a month | 9–17 days | 17–34 days | 43–84 days |
| 1 woman | 60 g, 1.8 kg | 67 g, 2.0 kg | 11–21 days | 22–43 days | 54–90 days |
| 2 adults | 145 g, 4.4 kg | 152 g, 4.6 kg | 5–9 days | 10–19 days | 24–47 days |
| 3 | 210 g, 6.3 kg | 221 g, 6.6 kg | 3–6 days | 7–13 days | 17–32 days |
| 4 | 270 g, 8.1 kg | 275 g, 8.3 kg | 3–5 days | 5–10 days | 13–26 days |
| 5 | 340 g, 10.2 kg | 337 g, 10.1 kg | 2–4 days | 4–8 days | 11–21 days |
| 6 | 415 g, 12.5 kg | 407 g, 12.2 kg | 2–4 days | 4–7 days | 9–18 days |
"Guideline amounts added up" sums each person's own row from Table 1.6. "App's first guess" is what the estimator and the app start from, and the "lasts" columns use it. The two differ by a few percent because the app scales one adult amount by energy needs instead of reading each age row. After a check or two, the app replaces both with your family's own rate.
A top end of 90 days means 90 days or more, where the countdown stops.
Why there is no "observed" dal figure
India's Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24 asks households how much pulses they used in the last 30 days. The printed report, though, publishes only cereal quantities by state. Its pulse rows show what households spent, in rupees. Our research on 8 Nov 2026 could not find the detailed item tables the report refers to online.
We cannot yet say how much dal a typical Tamil or Punjabi family actually cooks. The guideline amounts above are a target, and real kitchens can be well above or below it. The app treats this as a weak first guess, which is why its range for dal is wider than for rice.
The method
The "lasts" columns use the same steps as the estimator and the app.
- Dal per adult share per day. 85 g, the ICMR-NIN 2024 amount for a sedentary man (Table 1.6), who counts as 1.00 adult share.
- Adult shares. By energy need (ICMR-NIN 2020). Woman 0.79, child of 8 0.81, child of 5 0.64, woman over 60 0.73, man over 60 0.82.
- Daily use. Family of 4: 0.085 kg × 3.24 = 0.275 kg a day, about 8.3 kg a month.
- Range. A full stock counts as ± 10%. A guideline is weaker evidence than a survey, so the daily use counts as ± 23%, against ± 15% for rice (the app's settings). For 5 kg: low = 4.5 ÷ (0.275 × 1.23) = 13.3 days, high = 5.5 ÷ (0.275 × 0.77) = 26.0 days. Rounded, about 13–26 days.
Inside the app, each dal you track (toor, moong, urad, chana, masoor) gets its own countdown. The app splits the daily pulses among them for your cuisine. That split is the app's own estimate. No official source publishes it.
How to store dal
| Item | Pantry, unopened | After opening | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dried lentils (nearest match for split dals) | 1 year | 1 year | USDA FoodKeeper |
| Dried beans (rajma, chana, lobia) | 1–2 years | 1 year | USDA FoodKeeper |
FoodKeeper does not list toor, urad or moong dal by name, so the table uses its dried lentil times. Packaged dal in India must carry a use-by or expiry date under FSSAI's labelling rules, so go by the pack first. Keep dal in closed, dry tins.
Signs you are running low
- The dal tin shows its bottom, or one dal is used up and the cook mixes two.
- Sambar or dal makes way for a dry sabzi because "there is only a little toor left".
- Someone opens the last unopened pack from the store cupboard.
A simple rule: buy more when about 5 days of use are left. For a family of 4 at the app's first guess (0.275 kg a day) that is about 1.4 kg of dal across all kinds.
Let the app learn your family's dal
With no survey figure, a guideline is only a starting point. MyKitchenRadar starts there, then asks "How much toor dal is left?" now and then. One tap on Full, Half, Low or Out, and the range moves to your family's own rate. Each dal gets its own countdown, and the low ones go on the shared buy list, ready the evening before shopping day.
Try the estimator, see how the countdown works, or go to the MyKitchenRadar home page.
Coming soon for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Android after that. Free core app. One optional Family plan. No ads.
Questions
How much dal for 1 person per month?
About 2.6 kg for a sedentary adult man (85 g a day) and 1.8 kg for a sedentary adult woman (60 g a day), raw weight. These are ICMR-NIN 2024 recommended amounts for all pulses and beans together.
How much dal should one person eat per day?
ICMR-NIN 2024 recommends 85 g of raw pulses and beans for a sedentary man, 60 g for a sedentary woman, and 50–65 g for children aged 1–9 (Table 1.6).
How much dal does a family of 4 need per month?
About 8.1 kg of dal and other pulses a month at ICMR-NIN's recommended amounts, for 2 adults and children of 8 and 5. The app's first guess for the same family is 8.3 kg.
How long does 1 kg of dal last?
At the recommended amounts, counting all pulses together: about 9–17 days for one adult man, 5–9 days for 2 adults and 3–5 days for a family of 4. Many families eat less than the guideline, and the app learns your real rate after a check or two.
Do non-vegetarians need less dal?
The guideline lets non-vegetarians swap 30 g of the daily pulses for meat or eggs. For a sedentary man that is 55 g of pulses a day instead of 85 g.
How long does dal keep?
Dried lentils keep about 1 year in the pantry, before and after opening, and dried beans 1–2 years unopened (USDA FoodKeeper). Packaged dal in India carries a use-by date under FSSAI rules.
Why is there no 'actual use' figure for dal?
MoSPI's 2023-24 report publishes how much households spend on pulses, in rupees, but not the kilograms. Until those quantities are published or computed from the survey's raw data, we use the recommended amounts and say so.
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Dietary Guidelines for Indians 2024, Table 1.6 (pulses and beans, recommended grams per day by age) and its footnote on non-vegetarian swaps
- ICMR-NIN, Nutrient Requirements for Indians 2020, brief note (energy needs by age and sex, used for adult shares)
- MoSPI, Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24 (NSS Report 592), checked for pulse quantities (published as values in rupees only)
- USDA FSIS, FoodKeeper data (CC0), Lentils dried and Beans dried
- FSSAI, Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations 2020, compendium
