, or:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
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To transcend any reflexive aversion to “chemical”-sounding ingredients, it’d be worthwhile to do a quick review of Twinkies additives, to understand what they do and why they’re present. This is at least a “know thy enemy” exercise, but I hope more to Engage The Brain on a rational basis. No fear:- Artificial Flavors
What: Synthetic molecules and mixtures from the vats of the incredibly competitive and secretive Aromas Industry, these are Lies and Cheats: Lies, for they suggest to the palate that wholesome food is present; Cheats, for the actual nutrition promised by the false taste & aroma is minimal to absent.
Why: egg, dairy, and vanilla are perishable and expensive, and their use must be minimized to meet shelf-life and cost targets; however, the desired taste and aroma of those foods also are minimized, and must be restored, more or less.
Flavor components not normally associated with baked goods are often added to create “notes” that give a competitive sensory advantage. Also, spiking the aroma creates a “favorable consumer experience” right out of the wrapper, and goosing the flavor “profile” can ensure a good impression on that all-important first bite, even if it’s total deception.
- Calcium & Sodium Caseinates
What: Derived from milk proteins, caseinates are milk & fat replacers. Functionally, they help to emulsify (enhance mixing of) fats and moisture, and serve as thickeners and foaming agents.
Why: shelf life and economy. The reduced or missing egg and dairy and their functions must be reintroduced: the natural lecithin and fats in the egg yolk, the sponge-creating proteins of the egg white, and the milk solids contributions to crumb binding and softening.
- Cellulose Gum & Modified Corn Starch
What: cellulose gum, aka sodium carboxymethyl cellulose—“CMC” in industry parlance—is basically heavily-abused wood pulp. The “Modified” in modified corn starch refers to cooking starch at high temperature and pressure with acids and phosphates to bond and branch the starch molecules together in ways Mother Nature never thought of.
Why: orthodox industrial bakers cherish these as thickening agents, stabilizers, and emulsifiers. In, say, Twinkies, they might allow batters to made with less actual food ingredients, using simpler, less time-consuming process steps (lower labor cost). Crucially, they keep batter properties predictable and stable over the course of a production run.
CMC and MCS give an “unctuous”—industry jargon for “greasy”— mouthfeel to fat-reduced baked goods. With the ill-advised Low-Fat dietary fads of the mid- to late-20th century just now fading away because low-fat diets seem to make people fatter, snack makers must have felt a lot of pressure to get fats out of their formulas. That, and a half-cent in cellulose gum is cheaper than two cents in fat, duh.
- Calcium sulfate
What: Actually, I quite like this one, because it comes right out of the ground as a mineral, or rock if you please, and goes straight into your favorite snack cake’s batter more or less unprocessed. Known variously as calcium sulfate dihydrate, CaSO4·2H2O, gypsum, or plaster of Paris, it can be a valuable calcium-rich nutrient that most folks could benefit from taking a pinch of daily.
Why: gypsum makes a good dough modifier (reduces stickiness), and it buffers a batter’s pH (acidity/alkalinity) to adjust complex food chemistry. Up to 1.3% by weight is allowable under FDA or GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) standards.
- Corn dextrin
What: dextrins are made by exposing starch to various acids, bacterial enzymes, heat and pressure treatments to form molecules of glucose stuck together in odd ways. Animal and human stomachs kinda do this during normal starch digestion anyway, so dextrins are not totally unnatural, and the body knows how to digest them.
Why: Within the industrial chemist’s vat, dextrins can be tweaked to exhibit diverse functional properties. In the Twinkies context, this might include batter thickening and binding, and probably as a modifier to stop the Creme Filling migrating into the Golden Sponge.
- Mono- and Diglycerides
What: known to the food chemist by the even uglier and less-pronounceable names Monoacylglycerols and Diacylglycerols (MGL and DGL), these are fatty-acid-based molecules ultimately derived from animal fats and vegetable oils. These are subjected to pressure cooking, hydrogenation, microbial digestion, and solvent fractionation, which together produce a greasy or waxy solid that can be powdered for easy inclusion in baking formulations.
Recall that the makers of the indigestible artificial sweetener sucralose aka Splenda® were sued repeatedly to stop them saying it is “made from sugar”—as if high-temperature catalyzed pressure-cooking of sugar with chlorine gas equates to “made from”. They now are allowed to say, “[Splenda] starts with sugar... But it’s not sugar.” Oh, really.
Likewise the reassuring ad copy of MGL/DGL producers generally runs: “Emulsifiers are made from natural raw materials, such as vegetable fats, glycerol and organic acids.” Ooh, natural and organic: must be good, right?
Do not believe such fluffery and marketing buzzwords. To clarify and paraphrase, “Mono- and Diglycerides start with natural materials... but they’re not natural materials.”
Why: these again are potent emulsifiers, added in tiny amounts, typically 0.5% of the flour weight in a baking formula. They interact on many levels with food components—fats, gluten, and moisture—to extend shelf life, and to alter dough and batter texture and consistency for easier machine handling, pumping, and pouring.
- Glucose
What: short for D-glucose aka dextrose, this is a simple sugar that is industrially derived from starches, which are broken down by a combination of acids, enzymes, and heat. It is chemically identical to the basic energy source for most animal life, and is naturally produced in the body by normal digestion. Glucose is one of the most ubiquitous, essential, and innocuous molecules in the biochemical universe.
Why: lacking the lævulose aka fructose component of ordinary sugar or sucrose, glucose is about half as sweet, and has a “cool” feel on the tongue. It also improves the sheen and crumb texture in baked goods. Glucose probably makes up a significant part of Twinkies’ Creme Filling.
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
What: aka HFCS. Increasingly controversial—and rightly so—this is an artificial sweetener enzymatically produced from maize starch. It is an industrial artifact widely displacing ordinary sugars and natural sweeteners in many commercially-prepared foods and beverages.
Despite its name, the fructose (lævulose) in HFCS and ordinary corn syrups is not identical to the L-fructose found in fruit and honey. HFCS contains high proportions of D-fructose, a naturally rare “mirrored” version of reversed isomerization and optical polarity; the relative 13C/12C carbon isotope balances of maize- vs. fruit- or honey-derived fructose also differ.
Also, fructose in solution, as in HFCS, corn syrup, and honey, can and does when aged or heated generate high levels of the breakdown product 5-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furfuraldehyde, aka HMF. This is quite toxic to honey bees, as those beekeepers who fed their colonies a “hot lot” of HFCS came to sorrowfully discover.
In May 2012 the FDA slapped down the US Corn Refiners Association’s vain attempt to circumvent consumers’ growing awareness of and aversion to HFCS by relabeling it as “Corn Sugar”. Ironically, corn sugar had long been the baking and brewing industries’ nickname for dextrose (glucose).
The FDA has designated HFCS as GRAS—generally regarded as safe—but the relative nutritional and health effects of corn syrup’s synthetic D-fructose vs. natural L-fructose, as well as any potential human toxicity from HMF, do not seem to have been well-researched.
Why: HFCS and ordinary corn syrup are sugar/sweetener displacers and replacers. The fructose in such syrups is sweeter and much cheaper than ordinary sugar, so less can be used for higher profit. It is also a humectant, helping to retain moisture for better crumb texture and longer shelf life.
- Polysorbate 60
What: short for Polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monostearate, this is a one of a class of synthetic molecules cooked up from various petrochemicals, sugar alcohols, and vegetable fats. It is the quintessence of “artificial”.
Why: emulsifier, again. Mixing promoter and surfactants (think detergent), polysorbates find use in many things, from ointments, cosmetics, toiletries, and of course, Twinkies. In synergy with mono- and diglycerides, they smooth, texturize, and mix, hold Creme Filling components together, and provide the desired shelf life and freeze-thaw stability to baked goods demanded by bake-here, ship-there commerce.
Also GRAS by the FDA, polysorbates are very potent, so strict guidelines have been established for limiting their use in articles meant for human consumption. It’s like, “Sure, they are totally safe... just don’t use too much, get it?” Got it.
- Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
What: Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate aka “SSL”, this is another wholly-synthetic molecular mashup, made of stearic and lactic acids pressure-cooked together with sodium carbonate (washing soda) or sodium hydroxide (lye; drain cleaner). SSL, thy name is “artificial”.
Why: this is a multifunction additive: an emulsifier (yes, another one!); a humectant for keeping Golden Sponge cakes moist and yummy; a conditioner that compensates for the loss of cake-sponge volume from the addition of soy flour (see below); and an antistaling agent for that all-important shelf life.
- Sorbic Acid
What: sorbic acid, aka 2,4-hexadienoic acid, was first isolated in the mid-1800s from mountain ash berries, and so is widely promoted as a “natural” substance. These days however, as a well-understood molecule, it is synthesized by the ton from a chemist’s panoply of feedstocks that might include crotonaldehyde, malonic acid, pyridine, trans-butenal, hexadienoic acids, allyl chloride, acetylene, and carbon monoxide, with the aid of metallic catalysts and sulfuric acid.
Why: Sorbic acid and its salts calcium/potassium/sodium sorbates are antimicrobial preservatives that are active in slightly acidic foods, e.g. below pH 6.5. Sorbates inhibit the growth of certain illness-associated bacteria, molds, and yeasts. Sorbic acid’s contribution to shelf life is making sure that your Golden Sponge cake does not kill you after a week on the shelf.
Sorbates have been used for many decades and are hardly controversial: they and other semi-natural preservatives such as propionates and benzoates have arguably saved millions from miserable deaths by food poisoning. The FDA has blessed sorbates with GRAS, despite the general lack of scientific study of possible deleterious effects on human gut flora.
- Soy Flour, Soy Lecithin, Soy Protein Isolate
What: just three of the multitude of milled, extracted, and processed fractions of that good ol’ soybean. Unless credibly certified otherwise, one can assume that all soybeans and soy products originate from pesticide-based, non-organic, GMO-infiltrated agriculture.
Why:
Soy flour is pulverized fractions of (usually) defatted whole soybeans. It functions as a humectant, a thickener, and batter/dough whitener.
Soy lecithin is purified from the (usually) solvent-extracted oil of the bean. Like the lecithin in egg yolk (expensive), soy lecithin (dirt cheap) is an excellent emulsifier.
Soy protein isolate is precipitated or extruded from a mash of defatted soy meal and various chemicals. SPI is texture modifier, protein source, and ... wait for it ... an emulsifier.
Ultimately the raison d'être for soy in baking is that it is massively cheaper than the old-fashioned ingredients it replaces.
An interesting synergy occurs with a mix called Lecithinated Soy Flour, wherein a 15% 1:1 lecithin:oil blend—both soy, of course—is sprayed onto 70 PDI defatted soy flour. When LSF is mixed with water, the resulting emulsifier-oil-protein goop can be used as cheap egg replacer, or, in food industry argot, “sparing agent”. The cost reduction is about 91% over cackle fruit.
- Sweet Dairy Whey
What: aka milk serum, whey is a by-product of hard cheese or casein/caseinate manufacture, consisting of mostly water, soluble protein fractions of (usually) cow’s milk, and a good bit of lactose aka milk sugar.
Why: whey has many functions in baking: acid source, browning agent, calcium source, dough conditioner, cheap milk/cream replacer, crumb texture modifier, egg white displacer/replacer (foaming agent), and protein source. The spray-dried whey often used in industrial baking (and by bodybuilders!) is typically 75% lactose.
At the claimed “2% or less” levels, a pair of Twinkies could hypothetically contain up to 2∙42.5g∙0.75∙0.02 = 1.2g lactose, equivalent to about 5 tsp whole milk, something for the lactose-intolerant to consider.
- Red 40 and Yellow 5 dyes
What: FD&C Red 40 aka Allura Red AC and FD&C Yellow 5 aka Tartrazine
are synthetic azo-class dyes derived from petroleum or coal-tar.
Why: with costly egg yolks rapidly disappearing from factory foods, some means of restoring the Golden visual appeal is necessary. Red and yellow artificial dyes are just the ticket. As mentioned previously, turmeric and annatto vegetal extracts could also be used, but it seems that Hostess never got around to making the changeover before going belly-up.
Either way, food dyes, synthetic or natural, belong in the same class of Lies and Cheats as the artificial flavors at the top of this l-o-n-g list.
Actually the above Twinkies “additives” list could have been still longer, but since the ingredients involved could qualify as customary food ingredients and be found in most home kitchens anyway, they’ll receive milder scrutiny:
- Corn Flour and Corn Starch
What: milled, sifted, and isolated maize fractions, degermed against rancidity and therefore less nutritious. Assume totally GMO and non-organic unless declared otherwise.
Why: many familiar functions: thickener, binder, texturizer, stabilizer. For sponge cakes, probably also to displace some portion of wheat flour to lighten sponge texture, and—can you say “ironic”?—to reduce any “wheaty” taste that might interfere with the artificial flavorings.
- Baking Powder:
Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate
Baking Soda aka Sodium Bicarbonate
Monocalcium Phosphate
What: mixes of natural and synthesized inorganic minerals. The particular mix of two or more components is optimized for the particular application. Thankfully Twinkies avoided the use of (or stopped using) the dreaded leavening Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, for aluminum in the diet has been linked with Alzheimer’s disease in genetically-predisposed people.
Why: leavening. Baking powder decomposes under baking temperatures into simple salts and carbon dioxide gas, which when trapped by gluten and egg proteins (and by gums or exotic proteins in additives, aided by emulsifiers) give rise to cellular pockets in, say, light-textured Golden Sponge Cake.
- Natural Flavors
What: in a perfect world, Twinkies would be flavored with pure Madagascar vanilla bean or extract—yeah, right. Or maybe a touch of naturally-distilled citrus or floral essences, hm? The FDA says it’s fine to be a little... well, okay, very non-specific about the source and composition of “natural” flavors. So, who knows?
Why: for the same dubiously-moral reasons as Artificial Flavors (see), but with a bit less deceit involved: to make the product more interesting and rewarding to eat, if no more nutritious.
- Salt
What: akin to plain table salt, mostly sodium chloride, precipitated from salt-mine brine or sea water.
Why: one of the oldest food “additives” in human history, salt modifies flavor and texture. Bakers however know that in sweet cakes, salt is added also to reduce the perception of sweetness. And at 36 grams of sugars—roughly 9 standard sugar cubes—per pack of twin torpedoes of Creme-Filled Goodness, that is a lot of sweetness to tone down.
Sorry for running long... Hope it takes less time to read than it took to type.
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The regrettable Mrs. Freshley’s “dreamies” cakes got mention in an earlier posting. Here is another mug--er, snapshot —
Well, there they are... just so you’ll recognize the cue for when to grip both hands to the shopping cart handle and keep walking down the aisle.
Coming up: forensic/speculative reverse-engineering
of the Twinkies formula...
of the Twinkies formula...
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