Extra Butter Microwave Popcorn vs Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes: which is safer?
Quaker Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes is the clear pick. Pop Weaver Extra Butter Microwave Popcorn carries a failing PFAS grade, and we never recommend buying a failing product.
Pop Weaver
Extra Butter Microwave Popcorn
PFAS grade
Overall grade
Verdict
Hazard flags
Material
Confidence
PossiblePFAS in grease-resistant bag coating
PossibleCoating migration into food under heat
PossibleVolatilization of coating components
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 bag coating, Coating migration into food under heat and Volatilization of coating components on the Pop Weaver and not on the Quaker.
- We flag Mold or bacterial growth in packaging on the Quaker and not on the Pop Weaver.
- The Pop Weaver is paper/paperboard bag with grease-resistant coating (unspecified) 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 Pop Weaver grade, at 35% 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