Snacks

Snacks covers shelf-stable savory packaged foods: potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, crackers, popcorn, rice cakes, cheese puffs, and snack mixes. Most entries in this category are NOVA 4 ultra-processed foods, though there are meaningful differences in quality between, say, air-popped popcorn and fried-and-flavored chips.

Snacks are not a dietary necessity but they are a cultural staple. The USDA DGA does not recommend specific snack foods but does emphasize limiting added sugar, sodium, and saturated fat — three things snacks often deliver in concentrated form. Programmatic scoring exposes the wide score spread within this category and identifies the few entries that genuinely hold up.

Air-popped popcorn, lightly salted nuts, and rice-based crackers with short ingredient lists can score 60+. Most branded chips, cheese puffs, and flavored crackers sit in the 30-50 range because of oil, salt, and NOVA 4 classification. Anything with artificial flavors, MSG, or hydrogenated oil drops below 35.

Score distribution

1. 01
   Larabar Cherry Pie

   Very good
   85
2. 02
   Popcorn (air-popped)

   Very good
   85
3. 03
   SkinnyPop Popcorn Sea Salt & Pepper

   Very good
   84
4. 04
   CLIF BAR Builder's Chocolate Peanut Butter

   Very good
   83
5. 05
   Triscuit Original

   Very good
   83
6. 06
   Larabar Cashew Cookie

   Very good
   81
7. 07
   SIETE Grain Free Tortilla Chips Sea Salt

   Very good
   81
8. 08
   GARDEN OF EATIN' Garden Of Eatin Blue Corn Tortilla Chips

   Very good
   80
9. 09
   KETTLE FOODS Kettle Brand Sea Salt Potato Chips

   Very good
   80
10. 10
    Terra Sweets Sweet Potato Chips Sea Salt

    Very good
    77
11. 11
    Lay's Classic Potato Chips

    Very good
    76
12. 12
    Cape Cod Original Kettle Cooked Potato Chips

    Very good
    75
13. 13
    THAT'S IT. That's it Apple + Mango Fruit Bar

    Very good
    75
14. 14
    Angie's Boomchickapop Sea Salt Popcorn

    Good
    74
15. 15
    Ruffles Original

    Good
    74
16. 16
    Pretzels Salted Hard

    Good
    73
17. 17
    THAT'S IT. That's it Apple + Strawberry Fruit Bar

    Good
    72
18. 18
    FRITOS Tostitos Scoops

    Good
    71
19. 19
    Mary's Gone Crackers Black Pepper

    Good
    70
20. 20
    THAT'S IT. That's it Apple + Blueberry Fruit Bar

    Good
    70

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