Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes vs Toffee & Sea Salt Popcorn: which is safer?
Quaker Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes is the clear pick. Smartfood Toffee & Sea Salt Popcorn carries a failing PFAS grade, and we never recommend buying a failing product.
Our pick
Quaker
Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes
PFAS grade
Overall grade
Verdict
Hazard flags
Material
Confidence
PossibleMold or bacterial growth in packaging
Smartfood
Toffee & Sea Salt Popcorn
PFAS grade
Overall grade
Verdict
Hazard flags
Material
Confidence
LikelyPFAS in grease-resistant coating
PossibleMineral oil or other coating migration
PossibleAllergen cross-contamination in shared packaging line
Where these two actually differ
- We flag Mold or bacterial growth in packaging on the Quaker and not on the Smartfood.
- We flag PFAS in grease-resistant coating, Mineral oil or other coating migration and Allergen cross-contamination in shared packaging line on the Smartfood and not on the Quaker.
- The Quaker is puffed rice cakes in paperboard packaging where the Smartfood is paper/cardboard with grease-resistant coating, 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 Smartfood 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