In from ScamBusters:

Twinkies: What Is Their Shelf Life?

If you're a baby boomer (and even if you're not), you've perhaps wondered about the 'real' shelf life of Twinkies.

We've heard lots of rumors about Twinkies including:

- They have a shelf life of 50 to 100 years.

- Their shelf life is 'longer than the cellophane they're wrapped in'!

- They contain chemicals used in embalming fluid.

- Hostess hasn't produced any new Twinkies in two decades -- the ones in the stores now have been sitting in the warehouses for years.

Perhaps our favorite rumor is that Twinkies have an incredibly long half-life, and could survive nuclear fallout. <g>

Are any of these rumors about Twinkies true -- or are they all urban legends?

Answer: These rumors are false. Twinkies have a shelf life of about 25 days -- not 50 to 100 years!

Nonetheless, that is quite long for a baked product. The reason is that Twinkies contain no dairy products.

According to the official Twinkies website, Hostess produces up to 1000 Twinkies each minute. Twinkies are baked in 17 different bakeries. More than 500 million Twinkies are consumed in the US each year. Yikes!

The weirdest thing, though, given that these rumors aren't true, is that we heard that the White House millennium time capsule includes a Twinkie, since it is "an object of enduring American symbolism." This time capsule was sealed in 1999 and won't be opened for 100 years...