# How do they enrich flour anyway?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-enrich-flour-anyway/498486>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 2, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-enrich-flour-anyway/498486 "2009-06-02T15:47:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-enrich-flour-anyway/498486/1 "2009-06-02T15:47:13Z")

</div>

I looked it up, and they tell me the “why” and the “when” for enriching flour, but not the “how”. So what is it?

Do they just grind up vitamins and add vitamin powder to the flour (in which case, if you shook a bag would the vitamins all end up at the bottom of the bag?) or do they somehow chemically bind the vitamins and minerals to the grains? Or what?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anaglyph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anaglyph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaglyph)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-enrich-flour-anyway/498486/2 "2009-06-02T16:34:03Z")

</div>

See [this link](http://www.fao.org/docrep/W2840E/w2840e0b.htm#2.1.2%20flours,%20cornmeal%20and%20bread%20and%20pasta) and sources cited therein