Snacks and candy, taken apart the same way as the drinks: every ingredient in label order, what it’s for, what the evidence says, and a verdict at the end.
The snack aisle runs on a short list of additives. Most candy is sugar, corn syrup, two or three synthetic dyes, and a glazing agent. Most chips are oil, salt, flavor powders, and — for anything orange or red — the same dyes. Meat snacks are salt, sugar, and a cure, whatever the front of the bag says. Learn those ingredients once and the label on nearly any bag becomes readable. The breakdowns below go through specific products line by line; the explainers cover the ingredients they share.
Jump to: Chips and crackers · Candy, cookies, and fruit snacks · Cereal and breakfast · Meat snacks and lunch kits · Pick by what you’re avoiding · Read a label in ten seconds
Chips and crackers
Corn, potato, or wheat, plus oil and a seasoning powder. Sodium is the number to compare, and the dyes are what separate the orange bags from the rest.
Candy, cookies, and fruit snacks
Sugar first, almost always, and the synthetic dyes that the FDA, California, and West Virginia are pushing out. Several of these now come in a dye-free version sold alongside the regular one.
Cereal and breakfast
Marketed as a meal, built like dessert. The added-sugar line is the one to read, and the end of the ingredient list tells you whether the colors are synthetic.
Meat snacks and lunch kits
Sold on protein. Every one of these is a cured, salted processed meat — including the ones labeled “no nitrates or nitrites added,” which use celery instead.
Pick by what you’re avoiding
If you’re choosing a snack by one specific ingredient, this is the short version. Every claim links to the breakdown that explains it.
- Avoiding synthetic dyes: Lay’s Classic, Fruit by the Foot, Goldfish, Chips Ahoy!, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Slim Jim, Chomps, Jack Link’s, and Lunchables have none, and Lucky Charms switched to carmine and spirulina. Cheetos use one (Yellow 6) and Cap’n Crunch two (Yellow 5 and 6). Skittles and M&M’s have five; Starburst, Sour Patch Kids, current Froot Loops, older bags of Nerds Gummy Clusters, and Tropical Gushers four (Strawberry Gushers use Red 40 alone); and Doritos, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and Pop-Tarts three. Dye-free M&M’s, Skittles, and Starburst are sold online; the store bags are unchanged. Dye-free Froot Loops ship to stores by the end of 2026, and newer Nerds Gummy Clusters bags marked “colors from real sources” have none.
- Avoiding added sugar: Chomps and Goldfish have none, and most chips, Lay’s included, have under a gram. The big doses are a box of M&M’s (53 g), a bag of Skittles (45 g), a pouch of Nerds Gummy Clusters (59 g), and a pack of Pop-Tarts (30 g); two Chips Ahoy! Chewy cookies have 11 g, a pouch of Gushers 10 g, and a roll of Fruit by the Foot 9 g. Among cereals, Cap’n Crunch has the most (16 g a cup); Froot Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Lucky Charms have 12 g. A Lunchables Fun Pack has 17 g, mostly from the drink and candy. Jack Link’s jerky has 6 g an ounce — sugar is its third ingredient.
- Watching sodium: per ounce, Jack Link’s (520 mg) and Takis (420 mg) are the saltiest we’ve measured, and a Lunchables Fun Pack is 530 mg. Cap’n Crunch is the saltiest cereal here at 290 mg a cup. Lay’s Classic (140 mg), Pringles (150 mg), and Doritos (170 mg) are at the low end of the chips.
- Avoiding gluten: Chomps is the only product here certified gluten-free, and Lay’s Classic is labeled gluten-free. Slim Jim (barley) and Jack Link’s (soy sauce made with wheat) aren’t, and the crackers, cookies (including Chips Ahoy!), Pop-Tarts, Froot Loops, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch are wheat-based. Cap’n Crunch lists no wheat, but its oats aren’t certified gluten-free.
- Avoiding gelatin: Starburst and Nerds Gummy Clusters have it (the original Nerds box doesn’t). Gushers and Fruit by the Foot are set with plant gums and are labeled gelatin-free. Skittles, M&M’s, and Sour Patch Kids don’t.
- Avoiding BHT and TBHQ: the two synthetic antioxidants that keep oils from going rancid. BHT is in the cereal itself in Cap’n Crunch and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and in the bag liner for Froot Loops. TBHQ is in Takis, Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, and the Reese’s cup in a Lunchables Fun Pack. Both are within legal limits; both are on many avoid lists.
- Avoiding nitrites: there’s no meat snack here without them. Slim Jim and Lunchables use sodium nitrite by name; Chomps and Jack Link’s get the same nitrite from celery, which is why their bags can say “no nitrates or nitrites added.”
The ingredients behind almost every snack
These show up across candy, chips, and cereal. Each explainer covers what the ingredient is, the research behind the concern, and where regulators stand.
How to read a snack label in ten seconds
- Sugar is usually the first or second ingredient. It may be listed as sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, or all three; they add up. That’s the number that matters most, and it’s on the nutrition panel as “Added Sugars.”
- Colors are at the end. Anything with a number — Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1 — is a synthetic dye, and “Lake” after it is the same dye in a form that doesn’t bleed. “Color added” with no name means there’s one in there too.
- Check the serving against the package. A theater box of candy or a bag of jerky is often three servings, and the front of the package usually shows only one.
- “No added” claims describe the form, not the substance. “No added MSG” can sit next to yeast extract; “no nitrites added” can sit next to celery powder. Read the ingredient list, not the banner.
- “Natural flavors” means plant- or animal-derived, not simple. It’s the one line on the label that tells you almost nothing.
Every breakdown on this site follows the same process: the label is photographed, each ingredient is checked against FDA and EFSA documents and the peer-reviewed research, and the sources are linked at the bottom of the post. How we research → · Sodas, sports drinks, and energy drinks get the same treatment in the Drinks section →