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Chapter 26

CONSIDER THE TWINKIE

Finding that Twinkies’ ingredients may come from as far away as Chinese and Middle-Eastern oilfields and involve products from facilities as wide-ranging as steel mills and deep mines may be surprising, especially for such a familiar, small, sweet, everyday item.  “All this just for a little cake?” is the obvious question.  The answer is yes--because the implications extend far beyond the Twinkie.

The Twinkie-Industrial Complex

When you consider the Twinkie as a product—which it truly is, in every sense of the term--it’s not that hard to fathom its link to the world economy.  In fact, Twinkies’ ingredients are the products of a rural-industrial complex, made from a web of chemicals and raw materials produced by or dependent on nearly every basic industry we know.   These ingredients are part of an international nexus: The Twinkie Nexus.

Twinkies are obviously connected to food industries such as corn, soybeans, wheat, eggs, and milk, but in fact, Twinkies ingredients are also manufactured with fourteen of the top twenty chemicals made in the U.S., not even including salt (which goes into chlorine) or petroleum.  The unlikely food sub-ingredients sulfuric acid, ethylene, lime, and phosphoric acid top the list.  The Twinkie Nexus is huge and complex.

That industrial aspect of our food—and Twinkies are but one among tens of thousands of processed foods—would be less troubling if it were easier to still see where it all comes from.  There is often no “terroir” to an ingredient, no one place that it is actually from.  And between commoditization and competition, most industrial food ingredient suppliers are not easily identified.  Most of the vitamins are made in China, essentially placing their manufacture beyond normal scrutiny, and most of the enormous and politically powerful agricultural commodity or global chemical conglomerates simply will not make themselves available. The whole scene is quite opaque.  These companies’ embrace of science is simply limited by their obedience to the marketplace and governmental policies.  One only need recall the recent discovery that partially hydrogenated oils, which were supposed to be better for us than butter, are actually worse, because of trans fats, or that they unrelentingly promote the unnatural use of corn to feed cattle, or that they fully embrace genetic engineering.  But we love the results and express this feeling unequivocally with our purchasing power, enthusiastically demanding  more protein sources, a wider range of food choices, lower prices, presumably safer and less spoiled food.  These are plainly political angles on biology—there are choices to be made--so it is up to us to keep on top of things in the food world.  

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Pick up a package.  The appealing little finger cake just begs to be eaten.  It is an appetizing size. Droplets of lush moisture cling teasingly to the inside of the perfectly clear wrapper. Rip it open, feel the softness.  Take a bite, not a nibble, and you’ll be hit, all at once, with sweetness, stickiness, and a rapidly dissolving texture.   

Then comes a second hit of sweetness.  Explore the filling with your tongue.  Notice the synergy of flavors that build—butter, egg, vanilla,,.then the creamy finish that lingers, sticky, sweet, and thick.  Appreciate the contrast and interplay between the smooth, cool filling and the delicate cake. 

Eat enough of ‘em, and you’ll be able to suss out the bouquet of fresh, Delaware polysorbate 60, and good Georgian cellulose gum;  a hint of prime Oklahoman calcium sulfate, or that fine, Midwestern soybean shortening, if not the finest high fructose corn syrup Nebraska has to offer. 

Twinkie, deconstructed.

At least now you know what you’re eating.