Is Flour Vegan? What The Research Says In 2024

When you see a vegan pastry, cake, or loaf of bread, you may wonder: “Is flour vegan?” The answer is yes! Flour is usually made from grains and thus is vegan. Non-vegan food comes from animals,^[1] and vegan food comes from plants.

If you are on a vegan diet, you don’t have to worry about flour. But you do have to worry about other ingredients in baked goods like eggs, milk, and butter. Read on to learn about the different types of vegan flour.

What Is Flour?

Flour is in so many products, from baked goods to meal replacement bars to sauces.

Flour is a fine powder made from dried and ground-up grains – usually wheat, rye, corn, or rice.^[5] Specialist flours, such as gluten-free flour,^[6] might also be made out of nuts,^[7] seeds, or starchy vegetables.^[8]

Wheat Flour

Regular flour is made from wheat. It comes in several forms, including all-purpose flour, cake flour, bread flour, self-rising flour, and whole wheat flour. All of these flours are cultivated and processed differently^[9] to produce specific properties for various applications. They each have distinct chemical compositions with different amounts^[10] of fiber and gluten.

Gluten-Free Flour

Corn flour,^[11] also known as maize flour, is another type of flour that is popular in Latin American cuisine. Corn flour is typically used to make tortillas and tamales. Rice flour is often used in Asian cuisine or as a gluten-free alternative to regular wheat flour. For example, rice noodles are made from rice flour. 

Many other grains can be made into flour, including oats, buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, and sorghum. These flours are all gluten-free and whole grain, meaning they are higher in fiber and protein^[12] than regular white flour. On the other hand, corn and rice flour are usually refined, and nutrients are lost^[11] during processing.

Gluten-free flour blends designed for baking usually incorporate several ingredients to achieve the desired properties. However, gluten-free flour mixes tend to be lower in protein and fiber^[5] than their whole-grain flour alternatives.

Non-Grain Flour

Other foods^[5] like legumes, nuts, seeds, coconut, and even fruits can be made into flour. For example, almond flour, garbanzo flour, and coconut flour are popular gluten-free flour alternatives not made from grains.

Flour Production

The production of flour can be split up into four steps: growing the crop, milling, grinding, and treatments such as fortification. The exact processes used to make flour are constantly evolving^[13] as researchers try to make the process more sustainable, economically efficient, and environmentally friendly. 

Growing The Crop

Varieties of grain crops are bred to have different properties. 

For example, wheat varieties are defined as hard or soft.^[12] Soft wheat has a lower gluten content and higher starch content than hard wheat. As such, hard and soft wheat varieties are used for different applications.

Hard wheat typically becomes bread flour, and soft wheat becomes cake flour. All-purpose flour may be made from a mix of hard and soft flour or from a wheat cultivar with medium gluten concentration levels. 

Milling

Whole grains have three parts: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. Refined flours^[14] go through a milling process, which removes the bran and germ. 

Milling improves the texture of the flour but removes much of the iron, dietary fiber, and B vitamins^[12] from wheat flour. Whole-grain flour does not go through the milling process, so it has all three parts of the grain intact. 

Grinding

For refined flour, the grain – now reduced to the endosperm – is ground into a fine powder. The same happens for whole-grain flour, but the entire grain is ground together. 

Fortification

Refined flours should be enriched to restore some of the nutrients lost during milling.^[14] This is mandatory in many countries.^[15] In the USA,^[16] refined wheat flour is fortified with calcium, iron, and B vitamins. Enriched foods such as fortified flour^[17] and greens powders can be a good source of vitamins and minerals. 

Other Treatments

Sometimes soft white flour is bleached with substances such as chlorine.^[18] Bleaching flour alters the way that the flour absorbs water and reduces the elasticity of the gluten proteins. This improves the dough functionality^[19] for some applications, such as baking cakes, but not for bread due to the reduced gluten elasticity. 

Researchers believe that chlorine treatments may have negative health impacts^[20] and are looking for alternative methods for treating flour. Ozone treatment^[21] is an alternative to chlorine to improve the texture and shelf-life of flour.

If you want to avoid chlorine-treated flour, look for flours labeled as unbleached. However, unbleached flour might alter the texture of your cake. Bleached flour makes a cake with a lighter crumb than unbleached flour. 

Variety Of Vegan Flour

Since there are so many vegan flours, you may wonder which flour you should use. The best flour for you will depend on what you are using it for and any health concerns you may have. 

Gluten-Free Flours

If you are also gluten-free, you must avoid all wheat, rye, and barley flours. All-purpose gluten-free flours tend to be made from a blend of ingredients like chickpea flour, sorghum flour, and rice flour. Since no one alternative flour is a perfect replacement for wheat flour, gluten-free blends usually work best.

Whole Grain Flours

If you are trying to maintain a healthy diet, you may want to incorporate whole grains into your diet. Whole grain flours have many health benefits^[12] over traditional refined flours. 

The USDA recommends^[14] that at least half of the grains in your diet are whole grains. Eating whole grains aids digestion, may reduce the risk of developing heart disease, and can help you maintain a healthy weight.

White wheat flour is typically used over whole wheat flour in baked goods because it results in a superior crumb structure. Most people prefer the texture^[12] of baked goods made with white flour. That being said, you can replace part of your white flour with whole wheat flour with minimal texture changes.

It is always best to find a recipe that uses whole wheat flour rather than trying to replace white flour. Since the structure of these flours is different, recipes developed specifically for whole wheat flour tend to perform better.

Many alternative flours like oat flour, quinoa flour, brown rice flour, sorghum flour, buckwheat flour, millet flour, and amaranth flour are alternative whole grain flours. 

Summary

Nearly all types of flour are derived from plants and are thus vegan. If you are concerned that a type of flour is not vegan, look at the ingredients and see if any animal-based ingredients have been added.

If possible, choose whole-grain flour or fortified flour over white, refined flour. The former tend to provide more nutrients, especially protein, fiber, iron, and B vitamins. It’s recommended to consume at least half grains and grain products as whole grains.

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