Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes vs Farms Microwave Popcorn Gift Set: which is safer?

Quaker Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes is the clear pick. Wabash Valley Farms Microwave Popcorn Gift Set carries a failing PFAS grade, and we never recommend buying a failing product.

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

Wabash Valley Farms Microwave Popcorn Gift Set

Wabash Valley

Farms Microwave Popcorn Gift Set

PFAS grade

Poor 25/100

Overall grade

Bad 0/100

Verdict

Skip

Hazard flags

⚑ 3

Material

paper/cardboard microwave popcorn bag with grease-resistant coating

Confidence

45%

LikelyPFAS migration from grease-resistant coating

PossibleBPA or BPS in bag adhesives or seals

PossibleThermal degradation of coating releasing volatile compounds

Where these two actually differ

  • We flag Mold or bacterial growth in packaging on the Quaker and not on the Wabash Valley.
  • We flag PFAS migration from grease-resistant coating, BPA or BPS in bag adhesives or seals and Thermal degradation of coating releasing volatile compounds on the Wabash Valley and not on the Quaker.
  • The Quaker is puffed rice cakes in paperboard packaging where the Wabash Valley is paper/cardboard microwave popcorn bag 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 Wabash Valley 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