Despite post-apocalyptic scenes with nary a bite to eat but a lone package of Twinkies sitting on a barren shelf, awaiting the desperate clutch of a starving survivor, Twinkies actually never lasted that long on the shelf — 26 days by the old owner’s count. But the new folks in charge at Hostess Brands are injecting more than just creme back into the snack cakes, giving the “new” Twinkies a shelf life of 45 days.

That might not be up to your idea of zombie apocalypse survival food, but when the comeback kid hits shelves this month, they’ll still have an edge over their predecessors.

A Hostess spokeswoman told the Associated Press that the extra shelf time was added by the old company before it went bankrupt, and hit the shelves in November 2012. We’re guessing most people were too busy freaking out and hoarding Twinkies to notice back then, however. And now it’s been months and months since any of the little yellow guys rolled off the bakery line.

Hostess isn’t saying, however, what changes were made to the recipe to extend that life, calling it proprietary information.

Some of the snack cakes will also reportedly be frozen en route to their retail destinations, which means stores can then stamp their own expiration dates on the cakes. This also means there could be a freezer full of Twinkies waiting your discovery after all help is gone in the post World War III world.

If you’re wondering whether or not that same spongy, creamy experience will hit your tongue the moment you bite into the new Twinkies, the spokeswoman assures the public that “any suggestion that Hostess is changing the integrity of the iconic snack cakes consumers have loved is completely untrue.”

Twinkies to last longer than many might remember [Associated Press]

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