Granola Bars Without Palm Oil | List of Palm Oil Free Bars

There are very few companies that make granola bars without palm oil. The ones I found are below. Snack bars with dates are often palm oil free because the dates bind them together. Palm oil enables bars to be “Chewy.”

It’s important to read ingredient labels to find protein, nutrition, snack and granola bars without palm oil. 

In addition to watching for palm oil and palm kernel oil, many of them contain palm oil derivatives. 

Choose bars WITHOUT Glycerin, Glycerine, Tocopherols, and Vitamin E (to maintain freshness) on labels. They are usually made from palm oil. Natural Flavors can contain palm oil.

Avoid these types of granola bars:

• Chewy
• Filled
• Coated
• Soft-Baked
• Layered

Remember, the less ingredients something has, the less likely it contains palm oil. Don’t be swayed by packaging.

Pay particular attention to companies who come out with new flavors. These bars often contain palm oil ingredients.

After cross-referencing their ingredients against hundreds of names of palm oil derivatives, we believe these nutrition bars and granola bars do not have palm oil ingredients.

However, we do not warrant that the ingredient, sourcing, allergen, and product information is accurate or complete. Our information comes from product manufacturers. Choose products that are certified Palm Oil Free from the International Palm Oil Free Certification Trademark (POFCAP) or the Orangutan Alliance. 

To my knowledge, no granola bars or bars of any kind have been certified Palm Oil Free. 

Palm Oil Ingredients in Granola Bars and All Bars

In granola and snack bars, these ingredients are most always made using palm oil. Natural Flavors can contain palm oil as well. 

• Palm Oil
• Palm Kernel Oil
• Glycerin
• Glycerine
• Glycerol
• Mixed Tocopherols
• Tocopherols
• Vitamin E

Avoid these ingredients as they are typically made using palm oil in all types of bars. Your best defense is to read labels before putting something in your cart. 

Regarding Natural Flavors

Natural Flavors in bars is a tricky one. You will have to:

1. Contact the company directly to ask exactly what makes up their Natural Flavors.
2. Then, when they tell you the ingredients, you have to reply asking what makes up those ingredients.

Most customer service reps do not know the exact formulations of every ingredient. That’s why Palm Oil Free Certification is so important.

You can also look online to see the ingredients in their other products. If they use palm oil in any of them, there is a greater likelihood they are using palm oil in the product you are asking about. 

Granola Bars without Palm Oil

Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars

What’s great about Nature Valley: These are accessible and easy to find in grocery stores. These are the only on this list of palm oil free granola bars that are truly granola bars.

Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars do not list palm oil in the ingredients. Nor do they contain Glycerin, Mono- & Diglycerides, and Tocopherols as many granola bars do. In snack bars, cereals, candy, and many other foods, these are often made from palm oil.

My son, who gets sick from palm oil, was able to enjoy the Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Granola Bars and their Oats ‘n Honey Granola Bars.

Nature Valley Crunchy bars

• Oats ‘N Dark Chocolate 
• Oats ‘N Honey  
• Maple Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Apple Crisp

You can find them in most grocery stores, Target, Walmart, and on Amazon. Be sure to choose “crunchy” to avoid palm oil. Read more in my review of Nature Valley Granola Bars to see the complete list of ingredients and more about their granola bars. 

Thunderbird Bar

What’s great about Thunderbird Bars: They don’t contain added sugar or Natural Flavors. They are vegan, paleo protein bars made with real ingredients. The idea behind them is they are a healthy alternative to energy bars. 

I recently found these bars at Natural Grocers. My son needed something to bring for school. I wanted a heathy bar that would provide energy without added sugars. I bought their Cashew Fig Carrot and their Pecan Goji Pistachio to see if my son would like them. He did.

So these bars have become my go-to bars for packing for him to eat afterschool, before practices.

They also have a multipack of their best sellers which includes these two flavors and four others.

Thunderbird Bars

• Chocolate Almond Butter Sea Salt
• Chocolate Coconut Cashew
• Hazelnut Coffee Maca
• Cashew Fig Carrot
• Pecan Goji Pistachio
• Texas Maple Pecan
• Snickerdoodle Cashew Tahini
• Mexican Hot Chocolate
• Yaupon Matcha Moringa
• Chili Pepita Pineapple

Larabar 

What’s great about Larabar: They use Fair Trade Certified Cocoa. They don’t use Natural Flavors. On the package, it will say how many real ingredients the bar contains. As an example, their Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bar contains 4 ingredients: Dates, Peanuts, Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, Sea Salt

They count the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips as one ingredient, and then spell out what they are made from: Unsweetened Chocolate, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Vanilla Extract. So technically, the PB Chocolate Chip Bar has 7 ingredients. I think that’s still impressively low!

They offer so many bars and snack products and have managed to make them without palm oil ingredients. They use dates as a binding agent instead of relying on palm oil ingredients.

Finding the Flavors You Want

Some retailers sell Larabars individually as well as in boxes and variety packs, such as the Larabar Chocolate Variety Pack with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, and Double Chocolate Truffle. 

They also make an 18-count box Variety Pack with Blueberry Muffin, Lemon Bar, and Apple Pie.

Larabar products are available at many retailers, including grocery stores, Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Amazon, and more. They are made by General Mills. They make their Original bars as well as Larabar Minis and Larabar Kids.

Larabar Original

• Almond Butter Chocolate Chip
• Almond Cookie
• Apple Pie
• Banana Bread
• Banana Chocolate Chip
• Blueberry Muffin
• Cashew Cookie
• Cherry Pie
• Chocolate Chip Brownie
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• Double Chocolate Peanut Butter
• Chocolate Peanut Caramel Truffle
• Chocolate Raspberry Truffle
• Cocoa Coconut Chew
• Coconut Cream Pie
• Double Chocolate Truffle
• Gingerbread
• Lemon Bar
• Mint Chip Brownie
• Orange Sorbet
• Peanut Butter & Jelly
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
• Pecan Pie
• Peanut Butter Cookie
• Pineapple Upside Down Cake
• Pumpkin Pie

Larabar Minis

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
• Double Dark Chocolate
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• Mint Chocolate Chip

Larabar Kids

• Chocolate Chip Cookie
• Cinnamon Swirl
• Chocolate Brownie

Big Spoon Roasters

What’s great about Big Spoon Roasters: They advertise Palm Free on their website. (Wouldn’t it be great if they would certify their products palm oil free!) The ingredients on their labeling do not include palm oil derivatives. In addition to making nut butter bars, they make palm oil free nut butters as well. 

These are the only bars we haven’t bought and tried ourselves. However, they are now on my list! They have a variety pack with four flavors.

Big Spoon Roasters Peanut Butter Bars

• Apricot Pepita 
• Cherry Chocolate 
• Cranberry Cashew 
• Figgy Chai 

Big Spoon Roasters Nut Butter Bars

• Apple Ginger Almond Butter Bar
• Lemon Blueberry Cashew Butter Bar

KIND Snacks KIND Bars

What’s great about KIND Bars: If you stick to the few bars they make without palm oil, you will find them to be delicious. They use whole, real nuts and pieces of dried fruit.

However, you must choose the KIND Nut bars I have listed below. They have the clear wrapper in the front.

KIND makes lots of products, however, most of them contain palm oil. I wish I saved my original post here from 2018 discussing KIND bars because they used to have many flavors without palm oil. However, they have discontinued most all of them which is disappointing.

Skip all their chocolate and peanut butter bars which contain palm oil ingredients or palm oil derivatives. Their Breakfast Protein bars, Soft Baked Squares, KIND Protein, and KIND Energy bars contain palm oil in some form as well. The only palm oil free bars I’ve found are their Nut bars.

Read Ingredients Before Buying KIND Bars

Be sure to read the ingredients to confirm you are buying KIND’s palm-free bars. Many of their new bars contain palm oil derivatives. Read labels!

KIND uses palm oil in many of their other products. READ LABELS EACH TIME BEFORE BUYING!

These bars below seem to be made without palm oil. On a personal note, my local Target sells KIND Cranberry Almond, and I buy them often. My son and I love them.

KIND Nut Bars

• Cranberry Almond
• Almond & Coconut
• Madagascar Vanilla Almond
• Fruit & Nut
• Honey Roasted Nuts & Sea Salt
• Maple Glazed Pecan & Sea Salt – Don’t know the source of the Natural Flavor
• Raspberry Cashew & Chia (discontinued)

RXBAR

I believe the Natural Flavors in RXBAR now contain palm oil. At least one flavor (Peanut Butter Chocolate) contains unmarked Glycerin in their Natural Flavors. In snack bars and other types, Glycerin is typically made from palm oil.

I haven’t bought RXBARs in years. However, there were years when we were buying boxes of them weekly. We would also buy the large box from Costco that included two of their flavors; I specifically remember buying them often in 2020 because my son loved them so much. 

However, thanks very much to a reader who commented below (!!!), I reached out to them again about their Natural Flavors. If you read the comments below, she wrote to say that she gets sick from palm oil. She got sick from their Peanut Butter Chocolate bar and didn’t know Natural Flavors could contain palm oil.

By law, in the United States, food labels do not need to spell out what makes up their Natural Flavors. 

Palm oil is natural and can be used to make up Natural Flavors. 

Again, please read the comments below for an email exchange with the company. I’m writing again now and will update with more clarification on the Glycerin.

I am so so so disappointed that these likely contain palm oil. This was one brand I felt good about. But palm oil is cheap and it has a lot of “good” properties for food manufacturers. Palm oil:

• Is natural
• Helps bind ingredients
• Helps keep foods shelf-stable longer
• It’s cheap.

Please note (Feb 2024): I am in the process of verifying the ingredients. I do not know the source of Natural Flavors in RXBAR. They used to be made without palm oil. Their website is fairly transparent regarding their ingredients with the exception of their Natural Flavors.

They use dates to bind their ingredients. They list their ingredients on the front of each package. 

RXBAR Protein Bars’ flavors

• Banana Chocolate Walnut
• Blueberry RXBAR
• Chocolate Chip
• Chocolate Sea Salt
• Coconut Chocolate 
• Gingerbread (seasonal)
• Mint Chocolate
• Mixed Berry
• Peanut Butter
• Peanut Butter Chocolate
• Pumpkin Spice (seasonal)
• Strawberry 
• Vanilla Almond

RXBAR past flavors include: Apple Cinnamon, Coffee Chocolate, Mango Pineapple, Maple Sea Salt, Chocolate Hazelnut, and Peanut Butter & Berries

RXBAR AM Bars’ flavors

• Blueberry
• Honey Cinnamon Peanut Butted
• Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate
• Chocolate

Simply Balanced Chewy Granola Bars

We have not yet heard back from Simply Balanced (Target brand) to confirm this flavor of granola bar is free from palm oil. We have checked the ingredients, and it seems these bars are made without palm oil.

(Note, my son has been able to eat this Apple Berry Flavored bar. However, read the label at the point of purchase — companies often change ingredients — to be sure the ingredients are palm free.)

• Apple Berry Flavored (Organic)

Enjoy Life Foods Crispy Grain & Seed Bars

VERY DISAPPOINTING NEWS: These seem to be discontinued. Thank you to the reader below who commented that they couldn’t find these bars.

What’s great about Enjoy Life Foods: They are the first company in the United States in the “Free From” category to earn Palm Oil Free Certification from the International Palm Oil Free Certification Trademark (POFCAP) for all four flavors of their Grain & Seed Bars.

Enjoy Life Foods also earned this important Palm Oil Free certification trademark for four flavors of their Protein Bites.

• Chocolate Marshmallow
• Banana Caramel
• Cranberry Orange
• Maple Sweet Potato

Enjoy Life Foods Protein Bites

• Dark Raspberry
• Dipped Banana
• Sunseed Butter
• Cinnamon Spice

Clif Kid Organic Z Bar

VERY DISAPPOINTING NEWS: Before buying, check ingredients. Thanks to the reader who commented below, I just learned that Clif Kid Organic Z Bars now contain MIXED TOCOPHEROLS. This is a new ingredient addition to their Organic ZBars.

My family has bought these bars since 2010 – 2012… I can’t remember but it was whenever Costco started selling them in the large boxes. To see in the last year they have changed to what I believe are palm oil derivatives (in the form of Mixed Tocopherols) is very upsetting.

They have lost a decade-long loyal customer. I used to buy hundreds of these bars a year! (My child who doesn’t need to intentionally avoid palm oil eats them all the time.) If you see MIXED TOCOPHEROLS on the box, do not buy them.

Thanks to the reader who commented below.

• Caramel Chocolate
• Chocolate Brownie
• Chocolate Chip
• Iced Oatmeal Cookie
• Iced Lemon Cookie
• S’mores

What (was) great about Clif Kid Zbar: Clif Kid Zbar continues to make these bars with other ingredients besides palm oil.

My kids love them and have been eating them for over 10 years. We (used to) buy boxes of them every month.

It was great to see Clif made their new Clif Kid ZBar Caramel Chocolate bar without palm oil.

Anymore, it seems when companies make new products, they are resorting to using palm oil. Instead, this bar include organic fig paste and organic high oleic sunflower oil.

A Consumer Care Representative from Clif Bar & Company confirmed their bars above are free from palm oil.

Please note, their new “filled” bars and their kid’s line of “protein” bars DO contain palm oil as do most of this companies’ other products and bars.

To the best of our knowledge, the bars above are the only ones Clif makes without palm oil. We are awaiting comment from Clif Bar & Company.

Van’s Foods

• Gluten Free Cranberry Almond Snack Bars

I used to buy these often but they have been discontinued. From their website, it seems Van’s just carries frozen waffles and pancakes.

How to Find Granola Bars without Palm Oil

1. Choose snack bars with dates.
2. Choose crunchy bars over chewy bars.
3. Avoid coated bars and bars with lots of ingredients.
4. Read all ingredients.

Palm oil ingredients go by hundreds of names which often makes them difficult to avoid and eliminate.

However, there are the easy ingredients to spot, those with the word “palm” in it, including:

• Palm oil
• Palm kernel oil
• Vegetable oil (palm)
• Vitamin A Palmitate 

However, there are derivatives which are often made with palm oil which are more difficult to know to look for. Unless the company lists the source, you won’t know unless you contact them.

In granola and other bars, these ingredients most often contain palm oil.

• Glycerin
• Glycerine 
• Glycerol: This ingredient is usually made with palm, sometimes soybean
• Natural Flavors
• Tocopherols: This ingredient can be used as a synthetic Vitamin E supplement or to preserve freshness in foods like granola or fruit bars, cereals, ice cream, and baked goods.
• Vegetable oil:  Sometimes it will be listed as “Vegetable oil (palm)” and sometimes it will be just listed as generic “Vegetable oil.”
• Vitamin E: Sometimes companies will add: To Maintain Freshness. Regardless, Vitamin E often equals palm oil.

Watch for Natural Flavors in snack bars

One major snack bar company told us the Natural Flavors in their Brownie bar contains Glycerin and that the Glycerin is sourced from palm oil.

Most of their other bars contain Glycerin spelled out separately as an ingredient (also made from palm oil).

Make Your Own

It’s super easy to make homemade date bars and customize with whatever dried fruits and nuts you have. Dates add a natural sweetener to baked goods. They work well in making bars because dates add consistency and hold the bars together.

If you have a high performance blender or food processor, they are easy to make. (I have a Vitamix; it works great to process the dates.)

You can also make coconut and date balls and carrot and energy bites aka bliss balls…  or make them into bars easily. They are no-bake. 

Homemade granola bars without palm oil

If you want to ensure you are not using palm oil ingredients, you can make bars yourself. See my recipe for homemade vegan bars with pure maple syrup. You can use honey as well (non-vegan option). It’s easy to mix in dried fruit, like raisins and cranberries. If you enjoy nuts, you can add these in along with palm-free chocolate chips, etc.

However, sometimes, we need a fast and easy, grab-and-go snack, which is why it’s great when we can buy snack bars without palm oil.

Granola bars are an easy go-to snack

Granola bars aren’t perishable so they are the perfect snack to put in a lunch bag or to send as a snack to school. They are great for road trips and for outings, really anywhere you need to send a snack. Many consumers enjoy them for a palm oil free breakfast.

You can also pack granola or muesli to go in a container. It’s not as convenient to eat as a bar is, but you can find palm oil free versions from Purely Elizabeth and Seven Sundays. See my review of Seven Sundays Muesli

Granola, nutrition, fruit and protein bars without palm oil ingredients

Always read labels. Know there are hundreds of alternate names for palm oil ingredients. Please do your best to support these companies and products so they can remain palm-free.

Learn ways to use less palm oil each week to decrease overall demand.

If you get sick from palm oil or you are avoiding palm oil for environmental reasons, you know how difficult it is to find granola bars without palm oil.

Nutrition and granola bars without palm oil ingredients

It’s difficult to find palm-free foods in the dessert and processed foods categories. That’s why I really consider it a big win when we find packaged foods without palm ingredients that we know we can eat safely. 

I’ve found some items along the way which make it easier to avoid palm oil. Learn how to find products without palm oil.

See my lists of snacks without palm oil and cookies without palm oil.

As always, please support companies and brands who don’t use any palm oil ingredients and the hundreds of names they go by.

You know how difficult it is to find protein bars and other bars without palm oil and related palm ingredients.

Please, if you know of other nutrition bars and granola bars without palm oil, help us all by listing them in the Comments. We’ll add them to this list. Thank you!

We are not medical professionals. This is not medical advice. Please consult with your physician. The information is based on our own Internet research and reading labels to compare ingredients against the hundreds of names for palm oil derivatives.

Use this list as a starting point; it is not guaranteed unless the bars are certified Palm Oil Free.

We reached out to each of these companies, specifically asking them about each product and asking questions to confirm ingredients. Read labels.

Thank you for being proactive and for read labels. By choosing palm oil-free bars, we will be making a difference.