Is There Anything Else?

Is There Anything Else?

Flour is a most natural wholesome food.  The following ingredients may be added to some flours to give baking benefits to the consumer.

You may see the words 'flour treatment agent' on the list of ingredients in your flour.  This improver is generally vitamin C (ascorbi acid) that makes the dough more manageable and gives a helping hand to get your dough to give a well risen loaf with what's known as a 'good volume'.

Flour was once bleached using various bleaching agents, most notably benzoyl peroxide.  As a result, most millers started producing unbleached lines in the 1980s, declaring them as such on packaging.  Use of benzoyl peroxide proceeded to decline steadily in the following years, until it ceased to be available altogether under the 1995 Bread and Flour Regulations.  So now days no flour is bleached.  Sodium hydrogen carbonate and calcium phosphate are the baking powders (raising agents) used in self-raising flour.

There are more detailed information about flour in the Flour Facts section