Thank goodness – that indestructible snack cake, the Twinkie, has been saved. Its industrial-secret recipe looks safe from the bankrupt status of its creator, Hostess Foods, with a couple of food conglomerates circling around looking for a piece of the proverbial pie, pigeons looking for breadcrumbs.

Hostess Foods, home of the Sno-Ball, Ho Ho, and our favourite, the Ding Dong, may be going over a food-fiscal cliff of their own, but a number of companies, including the makers of long-time rival Tastykake, are looking to snap up the recipes to some or all of the brand’s names and save the iconic product from plunging into a cravings-canyon.

Hostess claim that the rising cost of production, centering around the burdens of a union-endorsed salary structure and a pension plan that cost $100 million a year have run the company into the red. They don’t mention the 80% pay rise the company gave its top executives only last year but then that wouldn’t look so good when 18,000 employees are about get a pink slip the same colour as that marshmallow-filled, coconut flecked Sno Ball.

No-one is citing the products themselves as a reason for Hostess’ troubles. Even without any statistics at hand, The Atlantic Voice still wonders if product was in fact a factor in the company’s demise. Much as we love that gooey inside of a Sno Ball as it sticks to the roof of your mouth, or biting through the chocolate shell of a Ho Ho, and the blissfully simple delight of the sponge and fake-cream of the indestructible Twinkie, we’re savvy enough to know that a constant diet of these sugar and flour house bricks that masquerade as cakes, is the surest path to adult-onset diabetes.

It’s not a stretch to speculate that some of Hostess’ demise could be attributed to the lack of nutritional value in its product range, and the fact that while it’s ideal to be dunked in warm milk, the Twinkie couldn’t find space on the organically dominated shelves of the coffee shop and upscale bakery.

Hostess, also the makers of Wonderbread, are, or were,  a mass-production baker in an era where “artisan” and “rustic” are the buzzwords of taste, quality, and ultimately sales. Fibre not white flour, natural sweeteners not processed sugars, ready for preserves to be spread upon, not held together by preservatives, today’s market with its sense of faux-sophistication is very different from one where shelf-life was the only ingredient that mattered.

Hostess was a company operating in a market that had long since changed, but for some reason had clung to an ever-shrinking market share. In a time when governments are dictating how big your sugared soda can be, even that bastion of cheap, un-nutritious fare – McDonalds – knows that it’s good business to sell a salad or too.

Hostess seemingly hadn’t noticed that it’s all Starbucks, low-carbs, and recycled packaging, still seeming to believe that cake and white bread was the only way to go. But man doesn’t live on bread alone, and however indestructible the Twinkie claims to be, the same can’t be said for its maker.