I just about broke a tooth on some popcorn I was eating for a snack. It came out of a store bought bag, just like a potato chip bag, but instead it contained popcorn. I can give the brand if necessary, but I’m not sure it is yet.
Anyway, at the bottom of the bag, I found a number of unpopped kernels, hard popped kernels, and other unsavory bits that you would expect at the bottom of a microwaved bag of popcorn, but not in something like this.
this is not the first time this has happened, either. Maybe it is the brand, but before I reveal the brand, can anyone else share their experiences with store bought, bagged popcorn? I would expect anything unpopped or unpleasant to be filtered out before the bag filling process.
So, my question is, how do these unpopped kernels make it all the way through the production process, get into my bag, and then come close to breaking a tooth because I’m not paying close attention to the quality of the last few handfuls of popcorn?
It’s cheaper to leave them in - because they contribute to the pack weight, and sorting them out would be ‘waste’ from the point of view of the manufacturer - another piece of production machinery to buy/maintain - and a proportion of the purchased raw materials (kernels) going straight in the trash.
your answer makes a heck of a lot of sense. I don’t know why I didn’t look at it that way. I usually do look for cost reasons, but in this case, I would figure they would want their product to be as clean as possible. But you make some very valid points, the best being the unpopped kernels add weight to the package, and it also reduces waste, as any garbage kernels and unpopped kernels, go into a bag for sale instead of collecting them and tossing them.
Thank you for pointing out this now obvious answer!
Mine was probably a bit of a cynical answer, but I expect it’s at least partly true.
Also, apparently, some people actually like crunching the unpopped kernels - you can buy bags of them called ‘pop-nots’ I think (so I guess some factories must be sorting them out).
Not sure what the law is like in the USA, but here in the UK, I believe it’s generally the case that things like unpopped kernels, fish bones, pea twigs, etc can’t be defined as ‘foreign bodies’ with respect to injury claims over food contamination - so if you break your tooth on a piece of gravel in a popcorn bag, the manufacturer is at fault, whereas if you break your tooth on an unpopped kernel, you should just have been more careful.
I.m not sure of the industrial process but every form of popping corn seems to have it’s share of unpopped ‘duds’. Some methods are better at filtering them out then others, such as hot air poppers - but kernels still get through. I’m sure that for their premium popped corn they like to have as few duds as possible, perhaps that’s the reason the store bought bags have more in your experience. It is possible that the top of the batch goes into the name brand popcorn bags, while the bottom goes into the store brands.
It is also possible that the store brand is the entire batch top to bottom and you just got a bag that was from the bottom of the batch.
Generically speaking a manufacturer has to draw the line somewhere, where at the bottom is the point to stop bagging the popcorn and my WAG would be to start bagging animal feed - which seems reasonable to do with the bottom, too many unpopped and broken pieces popcorn.
There’s apparently two competing companies marketing these, actually. PopNots is one, and Pop’d Kerns is the other. I’ve had Pop’d Kerns. Terribly named, but delicious.
This is a product for which I confess I can’t believe there is a market for.
I have a cousin who used to search for these unpopped “rocks” to eat. I always looked at her like she was a major-league weirdo. To hear that companies actually do this on purpose, and people actually buy these things is just insane to me. Why not just get a handful of gravel and bust your teeth with those? Gravel is free!
Seriously, I can’t even push down hard enough with my teeth to break into one of these little bb’s, and I have actually broken two teeth on them over my lifetime. How can anyone find eating them enjoyable?
Maybe I just have sensitive teeth, or weak teeth. But I HAVE eaten corn nuts, so I do like a salty crunch now and then.