Movie Theater Butter Popcorn vs Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes: which is safer?

Quaker Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes is the clear pick. Orville Redenbacher's Movie Theater Butter Popcorn carries a failing PFAS grade, and we never recommend buying a failing product.

Orville Redenbacher's Movie Theater Butter Popcorn

Orville Redenbacher's

Movie Theater Butter Popcorn

PFAS grade

Poor 25/100

Overall grade

Bad 0/100

Verdict

Skip

Hazard flags

⚑ 4

Material

paper/kraft popcorn bag with grease-resistant coating

Confidence

45%

LikelyPFAS in grease-resistant coating

PossibleCoating leaching into food

PossibleThermal degradation of coating if heated

Our pick

Quaker Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes

Quaker

Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes

PFAS grade

Good 70/100

Overall grade

Good 66/100

Verdict

Buy

Hazard flags

⚑ 1

Material

puffed rice cakes in paperboard packaging

Confidence

72%

PossibleMold or bacterial growth in packaging

Where these two actually differ

  • We flag PFAS in grease-resistant coating, Coating leaching into food, Thermal degradation of coating if heated and Absence of ingredient or material disclosure on the Orville Redenbacher's and not on the Quaker.
  • We flag Mold or bacterial growth in packaging on the Quaker and not on the Orville Redenbacher's.
  • The Orville Redenbacher's is paper/kraft popcorn 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 Orville Redenbacher's grade, at 45% confidence against 72%, because it discloses less.

Both products run through the same public rubric: 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