I've had Quaker bars kicking around, half frozen in my ATV box for months and they still tasted like Quaker bars. But what if it was years? Tried a pack of Datrex bars a while back and found that I liked them, with a 7 year shelf life to boot. But they give me the runs 🙄
When does a granola bar become inedible? I tend to favor the chocolate chip or smore variety.
Eventually (in some heat) the soft bars end up adhered to the packaging as much as themselves. Anything with a gooey center like PopTarts or NutriGrain filled granola gets soggy through and ends up sticking to the packaging inside a couple of years, too. The chocolate ones will go chalky (blush? bloom? -something like that) but apparently that's not unhealthy. Still, a year or two of back and forth heat after they get white, chocolate covered granola bars start oozing clear junk through the chocolate.
If you're going with granola and don't have a controlled climate, for sure go with the dry crunchy bars. They're not expensive and you can always donate them (if they're being rotated before expiration). If you'll eat them, the dry bars are good for at least 3-5 years in a pickup in double-digit winters and triple digit summers. Soft Quaker fruit and nut granola bars and oatmeal square breakfast things are good for at least 1-1.5 years in the same vehicle's center console but they do increase in stickiness after summer. Not what I want to deal with if I'm already in a poor mood and have limited water. A couple of the regular skinny small bars made it about 2 years in the truck bags once and were super sticky, starting to leave big chunks and a solid coating of goo and little grains on the wrapper, but tasted okay.