— Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery
Made Plain and Easy, 1747The Disadvantages of Modified Fats and
Flours Hydrogenated vegetable shortenings
and chlorinated flour are very useful, but have
drawbacks that lead some bakers to avoid
them. Hydrogenated shortening does not have
the flavor that butter does, and has the more
serious disadvantage of containing high levels
of trans fatty acids (10–35% compared to
butter’s 3–4%; seep. 38). Chlorinated flour
has a distinctive taste that some bakers dislike
(others find that it enhances cake aroma). And
the chlorine ends up in fat-like flour
molecules that accumulate in animal bodies.
There’s no evidence that this accumulation is
harmful, but the European Union and the
United Kingdom consider the safety of
chlorinated flour unproven, and forbid its use.
The U.S. FDA and the World Health
Organization consider chlorinated flour a safe