BUCKHORN CLIFFSA preparedness field manual

Food · Supply

Packaged Snacks

How long chips, crackers, pretzels, bars, cookies and trail mix keep sealed and opened, which snacks earn a place in a food store and the bag, how to store them, and stale against rancid.

MONTHS, NOT YEARSROTATEMORALEWorks without power

Quick facts

  • Crackers, pretzels8 months sealed; a month opened at full crispness
  • Chips2 months sealed; 1 to 2 weeks opened
  • Bars, cookies, trail mix6 to 12 months sealed; the nuts and chocolate age first
  • Watch for
    • Rancid smell
    • softness
    • moisture
    • pests

Where this sits on the food shopping list

Snacks are the part of the food store that nobody plans and everybody eats first, and they do a job: calories that need nothing, food a sick or frightened child will take, and the morale that makes the third night tolerable. None of it keeps for years. Crackers are months, chips are weeks once opened, bars are a year. This page is what to keep, how long, and how to keep it moving.

Which to buy

For the store: crackers and pretzels (low fat, long keeping), the plainer bars, hard candy, and nuts bought fresh and frozen. For the bag and the truck: bars and trail mix, replaced every spring and every fall. Chips and anything fried go stale and rancid fastest and are for eating this month. Sealed single-serve packs keep better than a big bag that gets opened and closed. Buy what the family actually eats; a snack nobody wants is not morale.

How long it really lasts

By how it is kept

FormLabel saysReal, stored well
Crackers, sealed8 monthsLonger in the sealed sleeve; a month opened at full crispness
Pretzels, sealedMonths; stale not spoiled after
Potato and corn chips, sealedAbout 2 monthsAbout 2 months; 1 to 2 weeks opened
Granola, protein and cereal bars, sealed6 to 12 monthsAbout a year; chocolate and nuts age first
Cookies, packaged, sealedAbout 2 months at full quality; stale after
Trail mix, nuts, sealed12 months6 to 12 months; the nuts go rancid; freeze to extend
Hard candy, sealedYears; it goes sticky before it goes bad
The Preparedness Food Shopping List (PDF), a one page printable PDF

Free download

Get the one-page food shopping list

What to store, how much of it for one person for one month, and how long it keeps. One page with checkboxes, built from the Survival Foods field guide. Print it, multiply by your people and months, and take it to the store.

The PDF comes by email, with my newsletter now and then. Already on the list? You still get it. Read the full page.

How to store it

Cool and dry, sealed until opened, then in a jar or a bag with the air pressed out; moisture makes crackers and chips soft within days. Keep bars and trail mix in the fridge or freezer in summer; the fat in them turns at room temperature. Nothing on this page goes into Mylar with an absorber for the long term: the Mylar ranking lists chips, crackers, trail mix and bars as packaging for organization and pest control only, and most of them are too oily or too moist for an absorber.

How to tell it has turned

Stale is soft, chewy or flat, and it's safe; crackers and chips crisp again in a low oven. Rancid is a sharp, bitter, paint-like smell in anything fried or with nuts, and it's done. Moisture inside the pack, mold on a cookie, or webbing and moths in the cupboard mean it goes. A bar that has gone hard and dark is old and still food; a bar with white bloom on the chocolate is fine.

Keep it

Stale crackers and chips, a hard old bar, white bloom on chocolate, sticky hard candy.

Discard on sight

A rancid smell, moisture inside the pack, mold, or pests.

How much, and how to use it

Snacks are the calories that need no water, no heat and no plate, which is their whole place in an outage and in the bag: a bar is 200 to 250 calories, a sleeve of crackers about 500, a small bag of chips 150. Rotate them through lunches and the truck so nothing sits a year. Crackers with the canned fish and the hard cheese are a meal; the box of them beside the cans is the first thing to open on the first night.

When the power goes out

No-cook, no-fridge food for the first days. Open one pack at a time and finish it; opened snacks in a warm house go stale in days.

Shelf-life figures are from the Survival Foods field guide; fridge, freezer and pantry times are from the USDA cold and pantry storage charts. Run the look, smell, taste check before eating anything past its date.

Questions this answers

Tap a question for the short answer.

How do I tell if packaged snacks has gone bad?

Warning signs are staleness, moisture inside the package, or an off smell. Taste a piece for freshness, feel for moisture, and smell for any unusual odors before eating the rest.

How long do packaged snacks last?

Crackers about 8 months sealed and a month opened; chips about 2 months sealed and 1 to 2 weeks opened; bars and trail mix 6 to 12 months sealed; hard candy years. All go stale before they go bad.

How do I store snacks long term?

Cool, dry and sealed, then in a jar with the air pressed out once opened; bars and trail mix in the freezer in summer. Rotate them through the truck and the lunches every season; they are not Mylar foods.

How do I tell if packaged snacks have gone bad?

A sharp, bitter, paint-like smell is rancid fat and the end. Moisture in the pack, mold or pests mean it goes. Soft, chewy or flat is stale and safe.

Keep going

Read nextCereal and GranolaHow long boxed cereal and granola keep sealed and opened, why granola with nuts and oil goes rancid first, how to store them, how to tell they are stale or spoiled, and making granola that keeps.Food · Supply

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