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When it comes to brownie mixes, Duncan Hines is a name that is synonymous with quality. For generations, home bakers have turned to Duncan Hines brownie mix to create delicious, homemade brownies that are perfect for any occasion. But, is Duncan Hines Brownie Mix vegan?
Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix, Chewy Fudge Brownie Mix, Double Fudge Brownie Mix and Triple Chocolate Chunk Brownie Mix are all vegan because they don’t contain ingredients sourced from animals.
Below is a table showing Duncan Hines Brownie Mix flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Milk Chocolate Brownie Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor. |
| Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix | Vegan. |
| Chewy Fudge Brownie Mix | Vegan. |
| Double Fudge Brownie Mix | Vegan. |
| California Walnut Brownie Mix | No, contains Egg. |
| Salted Caramel Brownie Mix | No, contains Milk. |
| Caramel Turtle Brownie Mix | No, contains Milk. |
| Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Mix | No, contains Milk. |
| Triple Chocolate Chunk Brownie Mix | Vegan. |
Duncan Hines Brownie Mix Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Artificial Flavor
- Baking Soda
- Caramel Color
- Caramel Topping
- Carrageenan
- Cocoa Butter
- Cocoa Powder Processed with Alkali
- Colored with [Titanium Dioxide
- Dextrose
- Eggs
- Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour
- Folic Acid
- Modified Cornstarch
- Natural Flavor
- Natural and Artificial Flavor
- Niacin
- Palm Oil
- Phosphoric Acid
- Potassium Sorbate [Preservative]
- Red 40
- Reduced Iron
- Riboflavin
- Salt
- Salted Caramel Topping
- Semi Sweet Chocolate Chunks
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- Skim Milk
- Sodium Citrate
- Soy Lecithin
- Sugar
- Thiamine Mononitrate
- Unsweetened Chocolate
- Vanilla Extract
- Walnuts
- Water
- Wheat Flour
- Wheat Starch
- Yellow 5
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk & Egg
Skim milk and eggs can be found in some flavors and since these ingredients comes from animals they are not vegan.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
Sugar is one of the most controversial ingredients for vegans because there is a probably that the manufacturer might have used bone char from dead cows in the production process. There are two common sugar types used in the candy and snacks industry which is beet sugar and cane sugar.
Cane sugar is popular and in it’s raw form, cane sugar is always vegan. However when the cane sugar is refined it could be classified as non-vegan because when the sugar is refined it’s also bleached and a common method is to use bone char to bleach the sugar.
Natural Flavor
Another tricky ingredient that vegans needs to look out for. The reason natural flavor is a questionable ingredient for vegans is the fact that it’s an umbrella term, meaning that it often consists of several ingredients without the source of these ever being disclosed on the ingredients label.
This means that ingredients sourced from animals could be placed in natural flavor and on the ingredients label you would only see the ingredient natural flavor. So vegans needs to be careful when eating foods containing natural flavor.
If you are ever uncertain about this ingredient, contact the company and ask just to be sure.
Artificial Colors
These colors have been discussed among vegans for a long time and there are two sides of this story. One side says it’s vegan-friendly because it does not contain any ingredients sourced from animals and that the animals testing was so long time ago.
While the other says that the animal testing could still be going on and if not the mere fact the colors was tested in the past, makes them not want to consume the product because animals was exploited in order for us to safely use these colors in foods.
Which ever side you are on, you decide if you want to consume these colors. It’s also important to mention that there are several health issues connected to these artificial colors such as hyper activity in kids.
Conclusion
It’s great that four flavors of Duncan Hines Brownie Mix are vegan, making this an excellent product to add to our vegan shopping list. Many companies tends to use milk in their brownie mix and finding vegan ones can sometimes be a hassle.
Thanks for reading, take care!
