ktripplaar / Depositphotos.com
World’s Oldest Known Twinkie Turns 50 and It’s Still Not Moldy
Click here for photos: 1976 Twinkie
Somewhere in America, a snack cake is officially older than most classic rock albums and is somehow still holding together.
Back in the early 1970s, Roger Bennatti showed up at Blue Hill Consolidated Schools to teach chemistry. Like many teachers, he expected lesson plans, homework, and the occasional unexpected question. What he did not expect was to accidentally create what may be the oldest known Twinkie on planet Earth.
During a 1976 lesson on food chemistry and preservatives, a student raised their hand and asked a simple question. Just how long would a Twinkie last?
Instead of guessing, Bennatti turned it into a science experiment. The student was sent to the store to buy a package of Twinkies. One was eaten immediately, because science. The other was sealed inside a glass case.
Fast forward fifty years and that Twinkie is still sitting right where it was placed. No visible mold. No collapse. No signs of surrender. Just a slightly darker, drier version of its former self, preserved like a museum artifact from the snack aisle.
Bennatti now looks back on the experiment with a sense of humor, comparing himself to the cake that refuses to decompose. “We’re old, gray, and flaky,” he joked.
The Twinkie has since become a legend, a conversation starter, and possibly the strongest argument ever made against eating processed snacks too often. While the shelf life on the box may say weeks, this thing has officially made it to half a century.
At this point, the Twinkie isn’t food anymore. It’s history.
Comments