I put that last sentence in the answer rather than at the bottom of the page, which isn't where most brands would put it.

SANS means without in French, and the name wasn't a marketing exercise. It started with me standing in a store after a ride, hungry, turning a box over and doing the arithmetic on what the front had just told me. The front would say one thing. The ingredient list would say another. And somewhere in the middle there'd be a word doing a lot of quiet work. Cane syrup. Sugar alcohols with names like a chemistry set. Natural flavors, which covers more than you'd guess.

So what follows is the whole list. Not the flattering half of it.

What is not in it

The four the brand is named for
No added sugar None added at all. Sweetness comes from fruit already in the recipe.	No dairy No whey, no milk protein, no butter.
No gluten No wheat, barley or rye.	No soy ingredients No soy protein, no soy lecithin.
The four most lists do not bother with
No sugar alcohols No erythritol, maltitol or sorbitol.	No emulsifiers The bar holds together on its own.
No chemical stabilizers Nothing added for shelf softness.	No natural flavors A legal term, not a description. Every flavor comes from a named ingredient.
This covers what goes into the bar. Production runs on shared equipment with allergens such as tree nuts. More at www.beardedbros.com/allergens

No added sugar. Not reduced, not swapped for something that behaves like sugar and reads better on a label. None added at all, and the sweetness comes from fruit that is already in there.

No dairy, so no whey, no milk protein and no butter. No gluten, so no wheat, barley or rye. And no soy ingredients, meaning no soy protein and no soy lecithin, which is the one that usually turns up as an emulsifier rather than as a protein. Worth the precision on that last one, because it is a statement about what goes into the bar rather than about the room it is made in. More on that below.

That's the list most people mean when they say free-from. Here are three more that most lists don't bother with. They're the ones I care about most.

No sugar alcohols. Erythritol, maltitol, sorbitol. They let a label say no added sugar while the bar still tastes sweet, and plenty of people find out the hard way that their body has opinions about them.

No emulsifiers and no chemical stabilizers. These exist to make a bar hold its shape and stay soft on a shelf for a long time. Ours holds together because of what's in it.

No natural flavors. This is the one that started all of it. It's a legal term rather than a description, and it turns up on a remarkable number of products that call themselves simple. If we used them we'd have to write them down, and I'd rather not have to.

The part I am not going to soften

I'm putting that under its own heading because a free-from list invites you to finish the sentence yourself. No dairy, no gluten, no soy, so probably no animal products either. That's a reasonable thing to assume and it's wrong.

The egg is there as egg whites, and it's part of how the bar reaches its protein number without soy or whey. It's in every flavor we make.

Peanuts are in three of the four. Here is the part I would want to know if I were you.

Flavor	Peanuts	Egg	Protein	Fiber	Cal
Peanut Butter Cacao	Yes	Yes	15g	7g	390
PB&J	Yes	Yes	15g	7g	390
Mint Cacao Peanuts are the first ingredient	Yes	Yes	15g	7g	390
Coconut Almond Butter Almonds instead	No	Yes	14g	9g	380
Every bar is 85g. Bundles inherit whatever is in them, so the Chocolate Lovers pack is peanut-containing on both bars.

Mint Cacao is the one to flag. If you're scanning a shelf for a peanut-free option and going by the name, that's the flavor that'll catch you out. Bundles inherit it too, so the Chocolate Lovers pack is peanut-containing on both bars. I'd rather you found that out here than halfway through one at a trailhead.

One more distinction that matters. Everything above is about what goes into the bar. Our production runs on shared equipment with allergens such as tree nuts, and you can find out more at www.beardedbros.com/allergens. So if you are avoiding any of those for medical reasons rather than by preference, read the pack rather than this page, and write to us if you want it from a person.

What is in it

Whole food ingredients you can name. Nuts, seeds, fruit, egg whites, oats. The Peanut Butter Cacao bar has nine of them in total, and I can write the whole list here without running out of room. Peanuts, dates, cacao, egg whites, oats, cocoa powder, flax seed, sea salt, spinach.

Fifteen grams of protein, in three of the four flavors. Coconut Almond Butter carries 14g and trades it for more fiber, at 9g against 7g. That's the number that makes it a meal rather than something you eat between meals.

Then fiber, and it is an excellent source. I put fiber ahead of the vitamin and mineral panel on purpose, and it's worth saying why. Fiber has to come from the food itself. Vitamins and minerals can be added at the end and printed on the front. So fiber tells you more about what you're actually holding, and it's the part of eating well most people aren't getting enough of.

Vitamins and minerals are in there too. They're further down this page on purpose.

Why the list is the whole point

Every food company decides how much of its ingredient list to talk about. Most talk about the good half and let the rest sit on the back panel in six point type, technically disclosed and practically invisible.

I'd rather write all of it down. Partly because that's the product, and partly because if you have to turn the pack over to find out what I left off the front, I've already lost the argument the brand is built on.

The rest of them are on the meal bars page. And if you want the longer version of why the ingredient list matters more than the nutrition panel, I wrote that one up in ingredient list versus nutrition facts.

Frequently asked questions

Are SANS bars vegan?

No. Every SANS bar contains egg whites, so none of them are vegan. They are free from dairy, gluten, soy ingredients and added sugar, and three of the four flavors also contain peanuts. The free-from list covers a lot of ground and it does not extend to animal products. The egg whites are part of how the bar reaches its protein number without soy or whey.

Do SANS bars contain nuts?

Yes. Peanut Butter Cacao, PB&J and Mint Cacao all contain peanuts. Mint Cacao is the one worth noting, because peanuts are its first ingredient and the name gives no clue. Coconut Almond Butter contains almonds instead and no peanuts. Production also runs on shared equipment with allergens such as tree nuts. Full detail at www.beardedbros.com/allergens.

What does no added sugar actually mean here?

It means no sugar of any kind is added during production. Not cane sugar, not syrup, not a sugar alcohol standing in for one. The sweetness in the bar comes from fruit that is already part of the recipe and appears in the ingredient list under its own name.

Why does SANS avoid natural flavors?

Because natural flavors is a regulatory category rather than a description, and it can cover a range of things without naming any of them. Leaving them out means every flavor in the bar has to come from an ingredient we can write on the list. It is a harder way to make a bar and it is the reason the brand exists.

Are sugar alcohols bad for you?

That is not a question this page is going to answer, because it depends on the person and on how much they eat. What I can tell you is that we do not use them, and the reason is practical. They let a label say no added sugar while the bar still tastes sweet, and enough people react badly to them that we would rather not put anyone in that position.

Is a SANS bar gluten free and dairy free?

Yes on ingredients. No wheat, barley or rye, and no whey, milk protein or butter. Those sit alongside no soy and no added sugar as the four claims the brand is named for. Production runs on shared equipment with allergens such as tree nuts, so read the pack and see www.beardedbros.com/allergens if you are avoiding any of them for medical reasons.