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The iconic Duncan Hines cake mix has been delighting dessert lovers for decades. Offering delicious, easy-to-create cakes with a familiar flavor and texture, the Duncan Hines brand has become synonymous with sweet treats. But, is Duncan Hines Cake Mix vegan?
Duncan Hines Cake Mix might be vegan, but most flavors contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, which could be sourced from animals.
Below is a table showing Duncan Hines Cake Mix flavors and its vegan status.
| Flavor | Vegan Status |
| Classic Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Classic White Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Classic Butter Golden Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. (Artificial Colors) |
| Classic Butter Recipe Fudge Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Classic Devil’s Food Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Classic Yellow Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Joyfetti Confetti Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Signature Pineapple Supreme Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Signature French Vanilla Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Signature Carrot Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Signature Triple Chocolate Cake Mix | No, contains Milk. |
| Signature Spice Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. (Artificial Colors) |
| Signature Orange Supreme Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. (Artificial Colors) |
| Signature Angel Food Cake Mix | No, contains Eggs. |
| Signature Fudge Marble Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. (Artificial Colors) |
| Signature Red Velvet Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. (Artificial Colors) |
| Signature Swiss Chocolate Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Signature Strawberry Supreme Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. (Artificial Colors) |
| Signature German Chocolate Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. |
| Signature Lemon Supreme Cake Mix | Maybe, contains Natural Flavor, Mono- & Diglycerides and Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate. (Artificial Colors) |
Duncan Hines Cake Mix Ingredients
Below is a list of ingredients from all the flavors that I could find.
- Artificial Flavor
- Blue 2
- Baking Soda
- Bleached Wheat Flour
- Cellulose Gum
- Cocoa Powder
- Dextrose
- Dicalcium Phosphate
- Egg
- Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour
- Folic Acid)
- Leavening (Baking Soda
- Modified Food Starch
- Mono- And Diglycerides
- Monocalcium Phosphate
- Natural Flavor
- Niacin
- Palm Kernel And Palm Oil
- Propylene Glycol Mono- And Diesters Of Fats And Fatty Acids
- Red 40 Lake
- Reduced Iron
- Riboflavin
- Salt
- Sodium Aluminum Phosphate
- Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
- Soy Lecithin
- Sugar
- Thiamine Mononitrate
- Whey
- Wheat Starch
- Xanthan Gum
- Yellow 5 Lake
[Source]
As always I’ve highlighted the ingredients that we need to take a closer look at.
Non-Vegan Ingredients
Milk & Egg
Since both eggs and milk comes from animals, they are not vegan-friendly ingredients.
Questionable Ingredients
Sugar
Sugar is a tricky ingredient for vegans because there is an instance where sugar could be classified as non-vegan and it involves the presence of bone char. There are two common types of sugar in the candy and snacks industry, beet sugar and cane sugar, while beet sugar is always vegan, cane sugar might not always be.
Raw cane sugar is always vegan, but it’s often refined to fit the product and in this process the sugar is also bleached. A common method is to use bone char from dead cows and exploiting animals in the production process would make the sugar non-vegan.
Natural Flavor
Another tricky ingredient is natural flavors and the reason for that is because it’s an umbrella term, meaning that it consists of several ingredients and the source of these ingredients are not disclosed on the ingredients label.
So natural flavors could contain ingredients sourced from animals and without being disclosed on the ingredients label, it’s impossible to know.
Palm Oil
Palm oil is an ingredient that is often used in the food industry. The reason why is because of the high productivity. With a palm oil farm, you can produce palm oil in a small area, making it one of the most profitable vegetable oils to produce.
Palm oil is not only a controversial ingredients for vegans, but a lot of people in general. The deforestation taking place is very devastating for the wild life and the environment. There is a way to make palm oil more vegan friendly by using the organisation RSPO.
This is a non-profit organisation that helps companies produce and buy sustainable palm oil.
Artificial Colors
The final controversial ingredient is artificial colors and this is a highly discussed ingredient within the vegan community. The problem with artificial colors is the fact that animal testing is still being conducted.
It’s old and outdated. There are several modern ways to performs tests and of them is computer simulations, which can yield great results. There are also health issues connected to certain artificial colors. One of them being hyperactivity in kids.
Mono- And Diglycerides & Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
These two ingredients can be sourced from animals and plants, making them very questionable.
Conclusion
There are mainly three ingredients that can contain animal derived ingredients or be sourced from animals and this makes it very difficult to determine if Duncan Hines Cake Mix is vegan-friendly. I contacted the support but I got a generic answer, which did not answer my questions.
So it’s risky for vegans to eat Duncan Hines Cake Mixes and there are other brands that are vegan-friendly using no questionable ingredients.
Thanks for reading, take care!
