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
PFAS grade
Overall grade
Verdict
Hazard flags
Material
Confidence
LikelyPFAS in grease-resistant coating
PossibleCoating leaching into food
PossibleThermal degradation of coating if heated
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 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