No matter how much they want to, today’s parents can only dream of spending hours in the kitchen making pancakes and biscuits. For such a fast-paced lifestyle, Bisquick ready-to-make mixes are a boon. But is Bisquick vegan?
While reducing the time and effort and the complaints, Bisquick pre-made pancake mixes also tend to reduce your headache if you are vegan. Many varieties of Bisquick are indeed vegan.
You must be wondering which Bisquick mixes are exactly vegan
Here you go, we have researched the ingredients of all varieties of Bisquick mixes available in America and found out that you can actually rely on some of them.
- Bisquick Original Pancake and Baking mix: This mixture has really simple ingredients that might not raise your eyebrows at all. There is enriched flour, leavening, dextrose salt, the usual vegan ingredients. Although the recipe in the kitchen will demand the addition of eggs and milk which you may have to improvise according to your special preferences and lifestyle. This mix is entirely vegan if you are able to prepare it with all vegan ingredients.
- Bisquick Heart Smart Pancake and Baking mix: In addition to the fundamental ingredients that we consider essentially vegan, Bisquick Heart Smart Pancake mix contains added sugar and DATEM. We haven’t yet received a verification from the company about the vegan status of this product hence we cannot but assume that the DATEM present as a constituent in this pack may be derived from animal-based sources of glycerin. This product is not considered vegan.
- Bisquick Gluten Free Pancake and Baking mix: Luckily, this pack is considered both vegan and gluten free. The constituents of this mixture include rice flour, leavening, modified potato starch, and soy additions at times.
- Bisquick Simply Buttermilk with Whole Grain Pancake and Waffle mix: As is obvious with the name, Bisquick Simply Buttermilk Pancake mix is not vegan. The constituents of this special Bisquick recipe include processed sugar, eggs, and buttermilk. Eggs cannot ever be a part of a vegan’s diet although ovo-lacto vegetarians may have no problem consuming this product. Buttermilk is a product of the dairy industry and vegans stay away from that kind of usually overlooked animal cruelty.
- Bisquick Shake and Pour Buttermilk Pancake mix: Alert! This product is not vegan. Not even a little vegan. We don’t need to look at the fundamental vegan ingredients when entirely animal based products are added to the top. The constituents of this mixture include egg yolk, buttermilk, and also egg whites and DATEM. Controversial ingredients like sugar and palm oil are also a part. As you are already aware, DATEM is obtained from glycerine which may in turn be prepared from either vegetable or animal based oils, who knows! Buttermilk is a product of the dairy industry that slaughters the emotions of cows and their calves in feeding undeserved milk to the human population. And eggs are completely unacceptable as constituents of vegan foods.
- Bisquick Complete Cheese Garlic Biscuit mix: None of the biscuit mixes produced by Bisquick are vegan. This particular mixture contains an alarming quantity of non vegan ingredients such that you’ll not even want to pick it up. There is buttermilk powder, cheddar cheese in a dry form, a concentrate of whey protein, reduced lactose whey which are all milk based products from the dairy industry vegans avoid. In addition, there are also controversial non vegan ingredients like palm oil, processed sugar, and natural flavours. This mixture is totally not vegan.
- Bisquick Complete Buttermilk Biscuit mix: As the name says, this mixture has buttermilk and vegans avoid dairy. This is not vegan.
- Bisquick Complete Honey Butter Biscuit Mix: This mixture contains honey. As honey is obtained from bees, it is not considered vegan by most standards. This is because a lot of honey bees get killed in the process of extracting honey and bees don’t make honey for humans. The ingredients also include butter, dried cheddar cheese, whey, romano cheese in a dried form, dried parmesan cheese, and nonfat milk which are dairy products and unsuitable for a vegan lifestyle. Apart from all this, controversial constituents like processed sugar, palm oil, and artificial flavours also form the mixture which may not be considered vegan by many. Essentially, this mix is not vegan.
It is clear from this list that only a few Bisquick mixtures are vegan. We’ll simplify the list so that you remember what to avoid on your next visit to the supermarket.
So basically, these mixes by Bisquick are not vegan
- Bisquick Heart Smart Pancake and Baking mix
- Bisquick Simply Buttermilk with Whole Grain Pancake and Waffle mix
- Bisquick Shake and Pour Buttermilk Pancake mix
- Bisquick Complete Cheese Garlic Biscuit mix
- Bisquick Complete Buttermilk Biscuit mix
- Bisquick Complete Honey Butter Biscuit mix
It is important to note that the seemingly vegan varieties of Bisquick mixes also contain some ingredients that may not be considered vegan by some standards. Such ingredients are known as controversial ingredients and they include processed sugar, palm oil, natural and artificial flavours, and artificial colors.
You should be aware about the controversial ingredients in apparently vegan food products
Sugar
Sugar is present in almost all factory made foods. There has been a large round of debate around the vegan-ness of processed sugar since it is mostly unknown how our sugar is bleached before it enters the ingredients in other food products. It is possible to buy unfiltered, organic, or vegan sugar as such from the market. But it is so hard to discern what type of sugar is present in your Bisquick mixture.
Many factories use bone char to bleach and whiten the cane sugar that they process. Bone char is a substance obtained by burning animal bones at high temperatures. Although no traces of bone char are passed into the processed sugar, some strict vegans are of the view that such cruel processes should not be supported.
Palm Oil
It is understandable that palm oil is a plant based product and no animals are slaughtered for its production. But animals are indeed displaced and endangered because of the large capitalist production of palm oil. Large areas of rainforests are cleared and the natural habitats of many wild animals are destroyed so they have to deal with scarcity of food and shelter.
The palm plantations are also notorious for releasing a product called peat into the soil where they are planted. Peat is responsible for releasing the greenhouse gas methane which is the main etiological agent for the earth’s greenhouse effect and the consequent global warming.
The palm plantations are a capitalist hell ground where labourers are bonded and made to work in inhumane conditions. Ethically, palm oil is not vegan.
Artificial colors
Many factory made food items commonly contain artificial colors and we often don’t pay any attention when they are listed as our ingredients. One one hand, artificial colors have been proven to cause many types of cancers in humans and are responsible for ADHD in children. On the other, artificial colors are ethically not vegan because they have to be tested on lab animals time and again. Poor innocent animals are subjected to toxic doses of these colors which either kill them or make them so sick that the researchers have to kill and dispose them.
Natural and Artificial flavours
Considering that it is not always known from where these flavours are derived, it is possible that they are derived from animal sources more often than we judge.
If you choose to prepare the comparatively vegan varieties of Bisquick mixes at home, it is important that you use vegan products in your recipe.
How do you replace the additive ingredients with vegan options?
This is more simple than you would have thought. For replacing the given option of milk, choose plant based vegan milks easily available around you. It is advisable to prefer soy milk over coconut and almond milks because it has a higher amount of protein. Ditch dairy milk at all costs!
Eggs can be conveniently replaced by flax eggs that will also give you an added benefit of adding more fiber to your diet.
So finally, is bisquick vegan or we should look for something else?
Technically, some varieties of Bisquick may be considered absolutely vegan. These include:
- Bisquick Original Pancake and Baking mix
- Bisquick Gluten Free Pancake and Baking mix
Although they contain the controversial non vegan ingredients, it may be advised to try and overlook some constituents whose avoidance may not really cause a big impact on reducing animal cruelty. It is obviously impossible to find the source of some of the controversial vegan products, so you might as well avoid that hassle.
Choose the products that clearly don’t contain the obvious animal based ingredients. Otherwise, you may be left with too few choices in this world. The basic varieties are mainly composed of flour, baking powder, salt, and shortening, so you may as well not judge that quite innocent packet. Good luck!
