Bare safety review
Founded 2001 · Purchase, New York (PepsiCo, Inc.); Bare Foods Co. was based in San Francisco, California when PepsiCo agreed to acquire it in 2018 · Part of PepsiCo, Inc.
Our verdict
AcceptableBare's apple chips are about as simple as a packaged snack gets, and that part can be checked: PepsiCo's own SmartLabel page for the 3.4 oz bag lists a single ingredient, apple, with no color, sweetener, oil or preservative, which is why they are on our list of snacks without Red 40. The grade is acceptable rather than recommended because nothing on that label is a certification of what is in the bag. The two it carries, Non-GMO Project Verified and OU Kosher, each cover a single attribute, and we read neither on its certifier's register; the manufacturer's label carries no organic certification for this bag. The record is short and it is not about the apple chips. We found no FDA recall record naming a Bare product under any firm, and no CPSC record under Bare Snacks or Bare Foods, as of 2026-10-12. Two California Proposition 65 notices, in 2020 and 2021, alleged that Bare's beet chips and carrot chips were sold without the state's lead or cadmium warning. Both were settled out of court, and both settlements ended with the product being discontinued. Those are warning-label claims about root-vegetable chips Bare no longer lists, not findings about the fruit chips it sells today, and both are older than the three-year window this directory applies.
- Best for
- A lunchbox or car snack with a one-word ingredient list, from a brand an ordinary supermarket stocks.
- Skip if
- You are feeding a toddler who is still learning to chew. These are hard, crunchy chips, and the manufacturer's own label cautions that a bag may contain occasional seed, stem or core fragments.
Reviewed by Dan Golden · October 2026
Company facts
- What they make
- snacks, fruit snacks, food dyes
- Where it's made
- Bare began in 2001 on a family-owned organic apple farm in Washington state, selling baked apple chips at farmers' markets around Seattle. That is the account PepsiCo gave when it announced the acquisition in 2018, and the brand's own site tells the same story without the date. PepsiCo agreed to acquire Bare Foods Co., doing business as Bare Snacks, in 2018. Bare Foods Co. is listed as a Delaware subsidiary in Exhibit 21 of PepsiCo's annual report for fiscal 2025, filed 3 February 2026, and Bare is on that report's list of trademarks PepsiCo owns. PepsiCo's SmartLabel page for the 3.4 oz apple chips states "Manufactured By PepsiCo" and "Distributed By PepsiCo" and names no plant.
The company behind PepsiCo, Inc. (Bare Foods Co. / Frito-Lay)
- Founded
- 1965
- Headquarters
- Purchase, New York
- Ownership
- Public company
Claims sit in audited filings, not marketing copy.
Safety breakdown
We found no FDA food enforcement record naming a Bare product as of 2026-10-12, searched under Bare Foods, Bare Foods Co, Bare Snacks and Bare Fruit as recalling firm, and by the word "bare" in the product description across every recalling firm, which returned nothing at all. We found no CPSC record under Bare Snacks or Bare Foods. The parent's record is separate and is not Bare's: openFDA lists 27 recall events (53 records) under Frito-Lay between November 2012 and March 2026 and 19 events (23 records) under PepsiCo between March 2018 and September 2025, and none of those product descriptions names Bare. Two California Proposition 65 60-day notices name Bare products. AG 2020-01022, filed 2020-04-20, alleged lead and cadmium in "Bare – Beet Chips – Sea Salt" and named PepsiCo, Inc. and Nowhere Partners, Corp.; it was settled out of court on 2020-09-14 for a $4,000 civil penalty and $36,000 in fees, with PepsiCo agreeing to stop making or buying the product. AG 2021-00139, filed 2021-01-25, alleged lead in "Bare carrot chips" and named Bare Foods Co. and Target Corporation; it was settled out of court on 2021-05-01 for a $500 civil penalty and $31,000 in fees, with the product to be discontinued by 2021-10-31. Neither reached a court. Proposition 65 is a warning-label statute: a notice alleges that a product was sold without a required warning, not that it was found unsafe, and lead and cadmium are taken up from soil by root vegetables such as beets and carrots. We found no federal docket with Bare Foods or Bare Snacks in the case name on CourtListener as of 2026-10-12.
Bare on SafeMama
1 product reviewed · 1 list · 0 SafeMama Picks
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- SafeMama Picks
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- we'd skip
- 1
- best-of lists
We found no FDA food enforcement record naming a Bare product as of 2026-10-12, searched under Bare Foods, Bare Foods Co, Bare Snacks and Bare Fruit as recalling firm, and by the word "bare" in the product description across every recalling firm, which returned nothing at all. We found no CPSC record under Bare Snacks or Bare Foods. The parent's record is separate and is not Bare's: openFDA lists 27 recall events (53 records) under Frito-Lay between November 2012 and March 2026 and 19 events (23 records) under PepsiCo between March 2018 and September 2025, and none of those product descriptions names Bare. Two California Proposition 65 60-day notices name Bare products. AG 2020-01022, filed 2020-04-20, alleged lead and cadmium in "Bare – Beet Chips – Sea Salt" and named PepsiCo, Inc. and Nowhere Partners, Corp.; it was settled out of court on 2020-09-14 for a $4,000 civil penalty and $36,000 in fees, with PepsiCo agreeing to stop making or buying the product. AG 2021-00139, filed 2021-01-25, alleged lead in "Bare carrot chips" and named Bare Foods Co. and Target Corporation; it was settled out of court on 2021-05-01 for a $500 civil penalty and $31,000 in fees, with the product to be discontinued by 2021-10-31. Neither reached a court. Proposition 65 is a warning-label statute: a notice alleges that a product was sold without a required warning, not that it was found unsafe, and lead and cadmium are taken up from soil by root vegetables such as beets and carrots. We found no federal docket with Bare Foods or Bare Snacks in the case name on CourtListener as of 2026-10-12.
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Bare products we track
Ingredient panel checked · source
Recall history
No recalls found. We checked CPSC and FDA recall databases as of October 14, 2026 and found no recalls for this brand. Recall databases update continuously — if you own a recalled product, the official notice is always the source to follow.