What’s In a Twinkie? Photos of 37 or So Ingredients

Anjali Prasertong
Anjali Prasertong
Anjali Prasertong is a writer and public health dietitian focused on food systems, racial equity, and nutrition. Originally from Los Angeles, she has taught English in rural Japan, worked as a private chef in Malibu, and led an innovative city-funded corner store program in New Orleans that increased fresh food access in low-income neighborhoods. She was previously a contributing editor for The Kitchn, and currently lives in Denver with her husband and two kids.
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published May 31, 2011
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If you’ve ever looked at the ingredients list on a Twinkie and wondered what calcium caseinate and sodium acid pyrophosphate actually look like, check out photographer Dwight Eschliman’s 37 or So Ingredients.

Are these the components of a familiar yellow snack cake or a chemistry experiment?

The photographs capture each ingredient on a clear lab plate, which makes the collection of mostly white powders seem even less like food. Eschliman says he has an obsession with deconstructing objects into their component parts, and processed food products are of particular interest, since his health-conscious mom didn’t let him eat them while he was growing up.

So this project is “the product of a kid that was raised to be suspicious of foods that weren’t assembled in mom’s kitchen, and bordering on obsessive compulsive.” We just call it fascinating.

• Check it out: 37 or So Ingredients – Dwight Eschliman

Via food52.

Related: Video: Jell-O Bouncing in Super-Slow Motion

(Images: Dwight Eschliman)

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