A pop-science journey into the surprising ingredients found in dozens of common packaged foods, using the Twinkie label as a guide

Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he often reads the ingredients labelwithout a clue as to what most of it means. So when his young daughter asked, "Daddy, what's polysorbate 60?" he was at a lossand determined to find out.

From the phosphate mines in Idaho to the corn fields in Iowa, from gypsum mines in Oklahoma to the vanilla harvest in Madagascar, Twinkie, Deconstructed is a fascinating, thoroughly researched romp of a narrative that demystifies some of the most common processed food ingredientswhere they come from, how they are made, how they are usedand why. Beginning at the source (hint: they're often more closely linked to rock and petroleum than any of the four food groups), we follow each Twinkie ingredient through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder with a strange nameall for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.

An insightful exploration into the food industry, if you've ever wondered what you're eating when you consume foods containing mono- and diglycerides or calcium sulfate (the latter, a food-grade equivalent) this book is for you.

"In this delightful romp through the food processing industry, Ettlinger, who writes on consumer products (The Complete Illustrated Guide to Everything Sold in Hardware Stores), says, 'Believers of urban legends take note.... Twinkies are not just made of chemicals,' nor will their ingredients allow them to last, 'even exposed on a roof, for 25 years.' But what exactly their ingredients are, and how they come from places like Minnesota and Madagascar to be made into what Ettlinger calls 'the uber-iconic food product, the archetype of all processed foods,' is the subject of his book. Each chapter looks at individual ingredients, in the same order as on a Twinkie package, so Ettlinger finds himself traveling to eastern Pennsylvania farms to study wheat, as well as to high-security plants that manufacture highly toxic chlorine used in minute amounts to make the bleached flour that is 'the only kind that works in sugar-heavy' Twinkies or birthday and wedding cakes. His exploration of the manufacturing processes of cellulose gum ('perfect for lending viscosity to the filling in snack cakes — or rocket fuel'), for example, cleverly reveals how Twinkie ingredients 'are produced by or dependent on nearly every basic industry we know.'" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"If you want to explore all the unpronounceable and highly suspect ingredients we consume daily, what better starting point could you choose than that classic golden creme-filled cake reputedly capable of withstanding a nuclear holocaust? In 'Twinkie, Deconstructed,' Steve Ettlinger sets out on just such an exploration, with mixed results.

'Where does pol-y-sor-bate six-tee come from,..." Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Daddy?' This is the question that inspires Ettlinger to research every ingredient listed on the back of the Twinkie wrapper, from enriched flour right on down to Yellow Dye No. 5. Having 'always wondered what those strange-sounding ingredients were' as he read food labels 'purely out of habit' (though not, apparently, out of any concern about what he was pouring down the throats of his innocent progeny), Ettlinger travels to plants, mines and refineries the world over, where he witnesses all manner of centrifuging, sifting and mixing of the flammable petroleum products that eventually make their way into these snack cakes. He also talks to lots of PR guys, who alternately give him the big tour, the runaround and the reassurance that there is absolutely no reason to fear any of the highly processed, sinisterly named ingredients that make a Twinkie's creamless 'creme' creamy and its eggless cake crumbly — even when, as happens time after time, they say they can't really go into how those ingredients get made. And Ettlinger, it seems, believes them.

'Twinkie, Deconstructed' takes such a rosy view of its subject as to give the reader intellectual whiplash. Ettlinger sees no omen of imminent apocalypse in the fact that the biotechnology corporation Monsanto produces both Roundup herbicide and Roundup Ready soybeans, genetically modified to resist Monsanto's own product. Thoses, by the way, appear on every page of 'Twinkie,' in loving lists of the countless processed foods — 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter ... Lee Iacocca's Olivio ... Edy's Grand Light Rich & Creamy Vanilla' — that incorporate, say, mono and diglycerides.

Nothing wrong with divergent opinions — that, plus polysorbate 60, is what makes chocolate and vanilla. 'Processed' doesn't equal 'toxic' — enriched flour wiped out pellagra, a once common nutritional deficiency that killed 100,000 Americans in the 20th century alone. But Ettlinger's characterization of partially hydrogenated soybean shortening as a 'magnificent culinary achievement' is hard to swallow, as is the argument of high fructose corn syrup producers that portion size, rather than HFCS itself, is responsible for the obesity epidemic. I can't help suspecting that rather than getting some answers from the huge, and hugely opaque, food-processing industry that profoundly affects the way we feed ourselves, Ettlinger settled for drinking the Kool-Aid.

Julie Powell is the author of 'Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously.'

" Reviewed by Julie Powell, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)

For consumers who have wondered about multisyllabic ingredients in processed foods, a New York author who has appeared on the Food Network and worked as a chef demystifies them. Drawing on interviews with industry professionals, Ettlinger reveals that these snack cakes and other popular products are concocted from byproducts of chlorine bleaching, gypsum mining, petroleum processing, and other chemicals also used in non-food products--which explains the Department of Homeland Security's role in food supply protection. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

When Ettlinger's young daughter asked him, What's polysorbate 60? he was at a loss--and determined to find out. The result is a fascinating, thoroughly researched exploration into the food industry and some of the most commonly processed food ingredients.