Why the World Doesn’t Need a “Healthy” Twinkie
Guest Blog By: Chef Coleen Donnelly
August 03, 2016
I have been involved in school lunch reform for 16 years. My current title is Corporate Chef, K-12 Segment at a company that sells rice, grains and legumes. In July, we exhibited at the School Nutrition Association’s Annual Conference for the fifth year in a row. And while that doesn’t make me a veteran, I’ve participated enough to know that our booth on the exhibitor floor is an anomaly. We feature super healthy, intact grain blends and always have something fun, delicious, and USDA compliant to sample.
There is nothing creative about this. This seemingly benevolent company (who shall remain nameless, along with their product) has gone down the wrong road. What manufacturers need to be doing is raising the bar on school food, not slinking under it with products that undermine authentic, healthy food. We have a responsibility to help food service directors and their staffs change the culture of school food through our products. Too many companies take the easy road and create the junk food they think can be quickly sold instead of doing the harder work of developing products that will help end the health crisis so many kids are facing. To make matters worse, the copycat Twinkie-like thing didn’t come with a product formulation statement because they rushed it to market and “haven’t had time to do that research,” they told me. Oops, the first ingredient is white flour. Fail.
And how did it taste? I can only describe the flavor as “off” and the mouthfeel as “slimy,” as in that gross feeling you get when you eat something that immediately coats your mouth. You can’t un-feel it for a long time.
There is nothing creative about this. This seemingly benevolent company (who shall remain nameless, along with their product) has gone down the wrong road. What manufacturers need to be doing is raising the bar on school food, not slinking under it with products that undermine authentic, healthy food. We have a responsibility to help food service directors and their staffs change the culture of school food through our products. Too many companies take the easy road and create the junk food they think can be quickly sold instead of doing the harder work of developing products that will help end the health crisis so many kids are facing. To make matters worse, the copycat Twinkie-like thing didn’t come with a product formulation statement because they rushed it to market and “haven’t had time to do that research,” they told me. Oops, the first ingredient is white flour. Fail.
And how did it taste? I can only describe the flavor as “off” and the mouthfeel as “slimy,” as in that gross feeling you get when you eat something that immediately coats your mouth. You can’t un-feel it for a long time.
