{"id":261,"date":"2010-01-15T03:37:23","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T11:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=261"},"modified":"2013-06-14T20:24:50","modified_gmt":"2013-06-15T03:24:50","slug":"twinkies-are-only-good-for-25-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2010\/01\/twinkies-are-only-good-for-25-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Twinkies Are Only Good for 25 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\"><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/hostess-twinkies.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7536\" title=\"hostess-twinkies\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/hostess-twinkies-340x255.jpg\" width=\"340\" height=\"255\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/hostess-twinkies-340x255.jpg 340w, http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/hostess-twinkies.jpg 413w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\" \/><\/a><a href='http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com' title='Interesting Facts'>Today I found out<\/a> that Twinkies have a shelf life of only 25 days.\u00a0 The popular notion that they &#8220;last forever&#8221; or for some ridiculously large amount of time is incorrect.<\/p>\n<p>Here are two other popular myths concerning Twinkies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Myth: Twinkies aren&#8217;t baked; the sponge cake instead is made from a chemical reaction that causes a cake-like material to foam up.\u00a0 It is then colored dark brown at the bottom to give the appearance of being baked.\u00a0 (Twinkies are in fact baked and their primary ingredients are flour, sugar, and eggs.)<\/li>\n<li>Myth: Twinkies contain a chemical used in embalming fluid which helps account for some of their extreme longevity.\u00a0 (Twinkies contain no such chemical.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"ad-right\">Here are some actual real Twinkie facts:<\/div>\n<div class=\"ad-right\">Twinkies were created in 1930 as ladyfinger-shaped spongecakes.\u00a0\u00a0 They were first thought up by James A. Dewar, the Vice President of Continental Bakeries that sold under the Hostess brand.\u00a0 Dewar was trying to come up with a way to utilize the machines used to make cream filled strawberry shortcake when strawberries were out of season and the machines normally sat idle.\u00a0 So he got an idea to create a banana cream filled cake.\u00a0 That&#8217;s right.\u00a0 Originally, Twinkies were filled with banana cream, which I suppose explains why they chose to make them look as they do.<\/div>\n<p>During World War II, bananas became scarce.\u00a0 Hostess then decided to switch the cream inside Trinkies to vanilla cream.\u00a0 This ended up being much more popular than the banana filled version. So when bananas became readily available again, they chose not to switch back.<\/p>\n<p>The name &#8220;Twinkie&#8221; was also thought up by James Dewar.\u00a0 On the way to a marketing meeting, he saw a billboard advertising &#8220;Twinkle-Toes Shoes&#8221; and thought up the name &#8220;Twinkies&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>When Twinkies first came out, they not only were banana filled, but they also had an incredibly low shelf life.\u00a0 This was due primarily to the dairy products contained in Twinkies giving them only a two day shelf life on average.\u00a0 This obviously cut into the profit margins.<\/p>\n<p>With the need for longer shelf life, they started substituting ingredients in the original recipe with artificial ingredients.\u00a0\u00a0 Among those artificial ingredients is cellulose gum, which gives Twinkie cream its smooth feel.\u00a0 Another place you can find this cellulose gum is in rocket fuel.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s not the only fuel based ingredient in a Twinkie.\u00a0 The chemicals that make up the artificial butter flavor are themselves derived from petroleum.<\/p>\n<p>Another interesting ingredient is corn dextrin.\u00a0 This gives Twinkies their sticky crust.\u00a0 Another place you can find this wonderful ingredient is in various glues;\u00a0 for instance, the glue that you find on the back of envelopes.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly though, of the 39 ingredients that make up a Twinkie, only one of them is strictly a preservative, or rather, its only purpose in being included is because it&#8217;s a preservative.\u00a0 Some of the other chemicals in Twinkies have preserving side effects, but their use is primarily as substitutes for the dairy ingredients.\u00a0 The lack of these dairy ingredients and the air tight plastic wrap are the primary reason that the Twinkie can last the 25 days on the shelves and can out last so many of its other baked brethren in that respect.<\/p>\n<p>Despite their slightly unhealthy nature (150 calories each; with quite a dose of fat included), Hostess now churns out more than 1000 Twinkies per minute or about 500 million per year.\u00a0 The cakes are each baked for 12 minutes; injected with cream; flipped over so the round bottom is now the top; then packaged for shipping.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"bonusfacts\">Bonus<\/span> Twinkie fact:\u00a0 According to Hostess, it takes about 45 seconds to explode a Twinkie in a standard powered microwave.\u00a0 Try this at home kids&#8230;\u00a0 Seriously, anybody want to try this and report back on the results?<\/p>\n<p>If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-brainfoodshow\/id1350586459\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/36xpXQMPVXhWJzMoCHPJKd\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/playmusic.app.goo.gl\/?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&#038;isi=691797987&#038;ius=googleplaymusic&#038;apn=com.google.android.music&#038;link=https:\/\/play.google.com\/music\/m\/Insimdi4g6puyyr4qbt6tup5b6m?t%3DThe_BrainFood_Show%26pcampaignid%3DMKT-na-all-co-pr-mu-pod-16\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Google Play Music<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/feed\/brainfood\/\" target=\"_blank\">Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2012\/09\/the-cotton-candy-making-machine-that-made-widely-consumed-cotton-candy-possible-was-co-invented-by-a-dentist\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Cotton Candy Machine was Invented by a Dentist<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/why-do-doughnuts-have-holes\/\" target=\"_blank\">Why Doughnuts Have Holes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/03\/haagen-dazs-and-frusen-gladje-are-both-american-companies\/\" target=\"_blank\">Haagen-Dazs and Frusen Gladje are Both American Companies<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2010\/12\/what-the-eight-juices-are-in-v8-vegetable-juice\/\" target=\"_blank\">What the Eight Juices are in V8 Vegetable Juice<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/one-calorie-is-equivalent-to-one-gram-of-tnt-in-terms-of-energy\/\" target=\"_blank\">One Calorie is Equivalent to One Gram of TNT in Terms of Energy<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<span class=\"collapseomatic \" id=\"id69f036e270e6c\"  tabindex=\"0\" title=\"Expand for References:\"    >Expand for References:<\/span><div id=\"target-id69f036e270e6c\" class=\"collapseomatic_content \">\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"How Twinkies Work\" href=\"http:\/\/recipes.howstuffworks.com\/twinkie.htm\" target=\"_blank\">How Twinkies Work<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Forever Twinkies\" href=\"http:\/\/www.snopes.com\/food\/ingredient\/twinkies.asp\" target=\"_blank\">Forever Twinkies<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Twinkie\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Twinkie\" target=\"_blank\">Twinkie<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"75 Years of Twinkies\" href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/articles\/A46062-2005Apr12.html\" target=\"_blank\">75 Years of Twinkies<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href='http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com' title='Interesting Facts'>Today I found out<\/a> that Twinkies have a shelf life of only 25 days.\u00a0 The popular notion that they &#8220;last forever&#8221; or for some ridiculously large amount of time is incorrect. Here are two other popular myths concerning Twinkies: Myth: Twinkies aren&#8217;t baked; the sponge cake instead is made from a chemical reaction that causes a cake-like material to foam [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,3106],"tags":[76,77,74,75],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-i-found-out","category-food-facts-today-i-found-out","tag-food","tag-health","tag-twinkie","tag-twinkie-expiration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}