At Earth Fare, we believe food should be real and healthy with NO unnatural ingredients.
Bleaching flour involves using chlorine gas to artificially age flour. It whitens the flour, which gets it to the shelf faster. When chlorine gas is added to flour, it reacts with some of the proteins in the flour, which produces a by-product named alloxan.
Bromated flour is treated with potassium bromate. The potassium bromate is a maturing agent that allows for the development of gluten in dough to make the dough stronger. It also whitens the flour. Given time to age, flour will naturally whiten, and gluten levels will naturally improve. |
 
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Why is Bleached or Bromated Flour Unhealthy?
Bleached flour is less nutritious. During the whitening process, you lose:
- 50% of healthy unsaturated fatty acids
- Most of the vitamin E
- 50% of calcium
- 70% of phosphorus
- 80% of the iron
- 90% of the magnesium
- Between 50-80% of B vitamins
Also, the by-product alloxan has been shown to produce diabetes in rats and mice.
Common Bleach/Bromate Culprits |
Earth Fare’s Healthy Heroes |
| Gold Medal Flour |
Organic unbleached flour |
TastyKake |
Earth Fare bakery products |
Conventional hamburger buns
(Sara Lee, Sunbeam) |
Rudy's bread and bakery products |
Gerber Graduates Cookies |
Earth's Best or Wheat Teething Biscuits |