I frequently make pancakes, but I’ve never questioned if flour was vegan or not, though I can say the same about other ingredients such as sugar, lactic acid, and a few others.
Regular flour is definitely suitable for vegans, including white flour. There was an ongoing debate within the vegan community about white flour being bleached with bone char, but that is not the case, not even in North America. There is an exception, but I’d say 99% of all flours are suitable for vegans.
In this article, I’ll show you why flour is not bleached with bone char, and I’ll look at over 20 different flours, and tell you everything you need to know about each one, including whether they’re vegan.
Why Isn’t Flour Processed With Bone Char?
From what I’ve researched, it’s unlikely for companies to use bone char to process flour.
You can confirm this by looking for inorganic oxidants on the label. Inorganic oxidants are things like chlorine, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), peroxides (magnesium, calcium, etc), azodicarbonamide, bromates, or iodates.
Oxygen (or air) is also an inorganic oxidant but is not listed on labels (usually).
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