White Flour: Vegan or Not Vegan?
While at The Union Hotel celebrating The Ridonkulous Accountant and The Vegetarian Politican’s 25th Birthdays, a bombshell was dropped.
It came to dinner time and I was feeling hungry so I thought I’d peruse the menu for some vegan options. The closest thing to a vegan option was the ‘Chickpea Burger, with green chilli jam, labne, tomato, baby gem lettuce & frites’. Mrs Ridonkulous Accountant and The Keen Accountant even went up to the bar to ask if it was vegan and whether there were any animal products in it. Other than the labne, which is a Middle Eastern strained yoghurt cheese, everything else in the burger was vegan! What a WIN! So I ordered it.
Chickpea Burger
A few minutes later the burger turned up at our table and I was just about to pick it up and take a bite when The Ridonkulous Accountant told me that I couldn’t eat the burger because it wasn’t actually vegan! NOT VEGAN! WHY!?!? Well, The Mother of the Ridonkulous Accountant had told him that white flour isn’t actually vegan because it’s bleached using animal bone materials. This started the argument.
I began painstakingly searching the internet with my iPhone to find out whether this was true. I couldn’t believe it! There were a range of websites that asked the key question: ”Is white flour vegan?”
At first glance, the majority of websites said white flour is vegan, but there were some websites that said it may not be vegan because of the animal products used to make it white. The most absurd article I found on the issue argued that white flour was not vegan because there may be insects in the flour from the harvesting process!
I could see the next two weeks being extremely difficult if I couldn’t have any white flour, so I thought the best course of action was to email a reputable vegan organisation: The Vegan Society of NSW. I agreed with The Ridonkulous Accountant that I would not eat white flour if the Society said it was prohibited.
Here was my email:
Hi,
I am new to veganism and was wondering if white flour is vegan, and if not, why so?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Vincent
The Vegan society responded surprisingly quickly:
Hi Vincent,
Congratulations on becoming vegan. As far as I know white flour is definitely vegan. You might also like to ask on the wall of our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/VeganSocietyNSW
Many knowledgable people are on that page.
Veganly yours,
Greg
I was so relieved to receive that email! So there’s the answer. WHITE FLOUR IS DEFINITELY VEGAN!
The challenge continues…
White Flour is Vegan!
The Disgruntled Vegan
Vinnie, I am so so SO glad white flour IS in fact Vegan… I was starting to feel so bad that I’d told you it could be Vegan without the labne and subsequently once debate fired up you were reluctant to eat it. Mrs RA would never look to sabotage you! Keep up the good work buddy.