63- What's in Your Twinkie?

	What's in your Twinkie? This is an American tale, recounting the story of a food stuff that has shaped several generations of North Americans. The Twinkie looks innocent enough, almost enticing beneath its plastic silky sheen. However, strip back that veneer of gentillesse and you are confronted with a monster of the manufacturing age. Read on to discover the soft, and sometimes sinister, underbelly of the American Twinkie. A Twinkie is described as a 'golden sponge cake with creamy filling'. It's four inches long and is indeed a golden colour with a dark caramel-coloured base. It also has three puncture marks on its underside which is where the white creamy filling has been inserted. What Makes a Twinkie? The list of ingredients of a Twinkie is a veritable Who's Who of the food chemical world and the following is a list of ingredients as provided on a ten-pack of Twinkies. Take a deep breath: Enriched Wheat Flour - enriched with ferrous sulphate (iron), B vitamins (niacin, thiamine mononitrate [B1], ribofavin [B12] and folic acid). Sugar Corn syrup Water High fructose corn syrup Vegetable and/or animal shortening - containing one or more of partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed or canola oil, and beef fat. Dextrose Whole eggs How's your stomach? Really? Oh dear... Well hold tight because Twinkies also contain 2% or less of: Modified corn starch Cellulose gum Whey Leavenings (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate) Salt Cornstarch Corn flour Corn syrup solids Mono and diglycerides Soy lecithin Polysorbate 60 Dextrin Calcium caseinate Sodium stearol lactylate Wheat gluten Calcium sulphate Natural and artificial flavours Caramel colour Sorbic acid (to retain freshness) Colour added (yellow 5, red 40) Credited to: www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A516836