Snack Attack

Twinkie Expert Suggests Twinkies Most Likely Aren’t So Evil

They're fine!
They’re fine! Photo: Courtesy of Hostess

The guy who wrote the book on Twinkies discovers that it’s most likely the absence of oxygen and a mix of gasses sealed in with the new packaging — rather than new ingredients — that give the relaunched snack cake a shelf life of 45 days, up from the previous 25. The gasses stave off spoilage, mold, and keep everything generally fluffy, Steve Ettlinger reports. Meanwhile, the author suggests it may be misguided for people to characterize Twinkies, which are filled with artificial flavors and ingredients, as “evil” just because they are emblematic of industrial food systems. Sure, the rise of Twinkies is connected inexorably to relationships between petroleum and “international industry,” he writes, but Twinkies are not inherently “evil” by any stretch. “Our health in general has not indeed worsened since we started eating more processed food,” he offers. [Atlantic Wire, Earlier]

Twinkie Expert Suggests Twinkies Most Likely Aren’t So Evil