New Twinkies Will Have Twice the Shelf Life

No, they still don't quite last forever

It’s a joke as old as the product itself: long after humankind is gone, the Twinkie we leave behind will still be edible. Come July 15, that joke is going to be a little more accurate. When Twinkies return to grocery store shelves on Monday, the sugary Methuselahs will have nearly twice their former longevity, CNN reports.

Early last November, Hostess retooled the Twinkies formula, extending the snack food’s shelf-life from 26 days to 45 days. But back then, the change was overshadowed by the announcement two weeks later that Hostess was shutting its doors due to bankruptcy and a bakers strike.

In the meantime, the hole left by Twinkies’ absence from the shelves was filled by brands like Grupo Bimbo (GRBMF) offering imitations of Hostess products, but the $410 million purchase of Hostess by Apollo Global Management (APO) and C. Dean Metropoulis & Company in March cleared the way for Twinkies’ return.

In addition to the 19-day extension, Hostess spokesperson Hannah Arnold said that one tenth of all Twinkies will be shipped frozen to participating stores, who can then thaw the Twinkies 45 days before an expiration date of their choosing.

The resuscitated Hostess has plans for expanding the reach of its operations, hoping to sell Twinkies in 110,000 stores, 60,000 more than before the shutdown.