Are candy bars allowed through security?

I suppose that stowaways need to pack food/energy items

I have never had anybody give a candy bar a second look, so I would not worry about it.

I would guess that Hershey bars are okay but the internals of a Three Musketeers bar count as a gel.

Out of my last three weekly trips through DCA, the first one I had carry-on, the other two times I checked my duffel bag. In all three cases I had two protein bars in original wrappers in the duffel bag.

The first time (with carry-on) the bag got pulled for hand inspection, with one TSA guy calling back to the X-Ray operator, "It's just some energy bars." The last two trips (with checked bags), I got home and found the friendly "Your bag has been opened by TSA" slips inside.

I'm not sure what's changed, as those same two energy bars have been sitting in that bag since at least February, if not longer. The other contents are identical too (workboots, a roll of painter's tape, punchlist binders and a change of clothes in case I have to stay overnight).

So I think the answer is, "Yes", but be prepared for someone to want to look at it. YMMV.

(In the early 90s my grandfather set off the metal detector at Shannon with the foil wrapper to some Kit-Kats which he had stashed in his eyeglasses case to hide from my grandmother. The whole family--and some of the Irish security people--burst out laughing when my grandmother then started yelling at him for having candy he wasn't supposed to.)

Nuyawkr

Here's your explanation: Chocolate is very dense and when in checked baggage can look like explosive material. (The same is true of thick books.)

There is no such problem with the x-ray machines used for hand luggage. I never put chocolate in checked baggage for that very reason.

Jeez. The sort of things I've learned on FT.. but please, not ANOTHER thing to put in carry-on in this age of one-bag rules..!