I've found twinkies in the cupboard that had been there a year, and snarfed them up without noticing any change in smell, flavor, or digestibility. . . . and I used to frequent a Hostess bakery about a block away where they sold stuff pretty cheap with the magic marker streak. . . . at half price or better. . . . . presumably because of the claimed 25 day shelf life. . . . and I've serviced refreshment stands which offer them for sale. . . . and while they do sell, sometimes they are there a while, and nobody ever complained about them being outta date.
Clearly, the urban legends seem believable because of a whole lot of people with observations like this. . . . lol.
how about marshmallows. . . and mayonaise. . . . related egg products with long shelf lives. . . . and it's the egg ingredient that has the shortest shelf life in the twinkie. The stamped expiration date probably reflects not the actual shelf life but the market research and sales "shelf life". . . . no reason to extend the date on impulse purchase/highly consumable comfort foods. . . . unless you really just can't sell them that fast. . . . which i don't think is the dominant issue.
clearly, I favor highly distributed production models anyway, where the stuff we buy is more locally-produced than shipped back and forth across the oceans. Seems like if we cared about energy waste we could put a little more value on goods being produced near their retail outlets. . . .
Clearly, the urban legends seem believable because of a whole lot of people with observations like this. . . . lol.
how about marshmallows. . . and mayonaise. . . . related egg products with long shelf lives. . . . and it's the egg ingredient that has the shortest shelf life in the twinkie. The stamped expiration date probably reflects not the actual shelf life but the market research and sales "shelf life". . . . no reason to extend the date on impulse purchase/highly consumable comfort foods. . . . unless you really just can't sell them that fast. . . . which i don't think is the dominant issue.
clearly, I favor highly distributed production models anyway, where the stuff we buy is more locally-produced than shipped back and forth across the oceans. Seems like if we cared about energy waste we could put a little more value on goods being produced near their retail outlets. . . .