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Is Cream of Tartar Vegan or Gluten Free?

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What is Cream of Tartar?

Unlike its name, cream of tartar is not creamy at all. Instead it is a dry, acidic powder that is a byproduct of the winemaking process. During the fermentation of grape juice, Cream of Tartar crystallizes in the wine casks. Scientifically, Cream of Tartar is known as Potassium bitatrate or potassium hydrogen tartrate and has a pH of 5.

Cream of Tartar has many uses around the house with most of them coming in the kitchen. In food, Cream of Tartar is used as a stabilizer in meringues, prevents crystallation of sugar, and can be used as an anti-caking agent or for thickening. It is also used as an component in baking powder as an acid to activate baking soda for leavening. Cream of Tartar has non-food uses for cleaning metals and rust.

Is Cream of Tartar Vegan?

Yes! Cream of Tartar is always vegan-friendly as far as we can find. As Cream of Tartar is a byproduct of the winemaking process, it does not come from any animal-derived ingredients or processes. We could not find any brands that were not vegan friendly in our research, but a list of brands we verified to be vegan is below.

Is Cream of Tartar Gluten-Free?

Yes! Cream of Tartar is also gluten-free. Since it is a byproduct from the winemaking process and no grains (especially gluten containing grains) are used during winemaking, it is a gluten-free product. However, not all brands are gluten-free because Cream of Tartar could be processed in a facility with other gluten containing products. A list of gluten-free Cream of Tartar brands are in the following section.

Gluten-Free and Vegan Cream of Tartar Brands

As there can be some cross-contamination in the processing facilities we have verified 7 companies to have both vegan and gluten-free Cream of Tartar. These companies are as follows:

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