40-Year-Old Twinkie On Display In Maine

At the George Stevens Academy in Maine, a Twinkie unwrapped forty years ago as part of a science project is still going strong in a glass box in the office of Dean of Students Libby Rosemeier.

ABC News reports that in 1976, teacher Roger Bennatti was discussing food additives and shelf life with his chemistry class. A student asked about the shelf life of Twinkies, and Bennatti had them buy some and bring them in.

Twinkies, of course, come packed in twos. Bennatti opened the package, ate one, and placed the other Twinkie on the blackboard -- where it apparently stayed until his retirement, when it was placed in the box in Rosemeier's office.

The Bangor Daily News reports that the dessert is a bit discolored, it doesn't appear to be moldy and still has the same iconic shape, save for a few crumbs that have fallen off. You can see a photo of the aged snack cake at the preceding link, or a video below.

The Associated Press asked her whether there was a plan of succession for the snack cake, but Rosemeier only joked that "The Smithsonian hasn't called yet."

In 2013, Twinkies were briefly discontinued after Hostess declared bankruptcy. They were back up and running in fairly short order after the company was purchased out of bankruptcy by Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co for $410 million. Among the plans to keep Hostess solvent? Changes to labor policies as well as movie tie-ins like X-Men: Days of Future Past, which saw the company produce a variety of mutant-themed Twinkies; Minions, where the packaging itself was modified to make it look like the Twinkies themselves resembled the little yellow protagonists, and the currently-ongoing promotion to bring key lime "green slime" filling to Ghostbusters-themed Twinkies.