Flavored Microwave Popcorn vs Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes: which is safer?
Quaker Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes is the clear pick. Great Value Flavored Microwave Popcorn carries a failing PFAS grade, and we never recommend buying a failing product.
Great Value
Flavored Microwave Popcorn
PFAS grade
Overall grade
Verdict
Hazard flags
Material
Confidence
LikelyFluorinated grease-resistant coating (PFAS family)
PossibleCoating degradation and leaching under heat
PossibleMicroplastics from polymer coating fragments
Our pick
Quaker
Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes
PFAS grade
Overall grade
Verdict
Hazard flags
Material
Confidence
PossibleMold or bacterial growth in packaging
Where these two actually differ
- We flag Fluorinated grease-resistant coating (PFAS family), Coating degradation and leaching under heat and Microplastics from polymer coating fragments on the Great Value and not on the Quaker.
- We flag Mold or bacterial growth in packaging on the Quaker and not on the Great Value.
- The Great Value is paperboard bag with grease-resistant coating where the Quaker is puffed rice cakes in paperboard packaging, which is most of the difference in these two grades.
- The gap is 45 points, wide enough that this is not a close call, and the Quaker is the one to buy.
- We are less certain about the Great Value grade, at 45% confidence against 72%, because it discloses less.
Both products run through the same public rubric, which covers materials, coatings, brand disclosure, lab findings, and recalls, plus a beyond-PFAS hazard analysis. Grades are model-based estimates, not lab tests. How grades work →
More microwave popcorn, see the full ranking