Popcorn consists mainly of popping corn and palm oil. There are small amounts of salt, potassium chloride, “natural and artificial flavor”, butter (cream, annatto) and food coloring. TBHQ and citric acid are used as preservatives.
The popping corn itself is just kernels taken from corn. The moisture and starch inside of them causes them to pop when heated because of the pressure that builds up. Popcorn tends to be high in fiber, sugar free, and low in fat. This brand has 4g of fiber and only 2g of fat per serving. (Source: http://online.prevention.com/healthfoodimpostors/list/1.shtml). It also is fairly low calorie, with only 120 calories per serving. So while popcorn is for the most part empty calories, there’s nothing terribly unhealthy about it. Though high fiber diets do help keep down blood sugar, cholesterol, and weight. And they also help with constipation. (Source: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fiber/NU00033).
Palm oil is taken from the pulp of palm trees. Palm oil contains some saturated fats, which can produce similar effects that having high cholesterol would, even though it does not actually contain any cholesterol. The oil also contains high amounts of vitamin E (an antioxidant) and beta-carotene (which turns it orange and means it likely contains vitamin A).
Salt is a mineral made up of mostly sodium chloride. The salt used in popcorn is what is commonly referred to as table salt, meaning it is refined as opposed to unrefined salt, like sea salt for instance. Refined salt is defined as having 97%-99% sodium chloride. There is also usually an element added to keep the salt grains from sticking together. Refined salt is made by first evaporating sea water so that only the salt remains. This is often done in shallow basins where the sun has already warmed up the water. Next the salt is covered in brine mixed with other chemicals that remove the magnesium and calcium particles from the salt. After that the brine and salt solution is evaporated multiple times until all that is left is pure sodium chloride. Then the sodium chloride is put in an insulated oven where the temperature is controlled so that it the sodium chloride crystals can dry out. This whole process is called recrystallization. Not getting the right amount of salt (which can mean not consuming enough salt, as well as consuming too much of it) can cause dehydration and many other health problems such as cramping (as a result of dehydration), high blood pressure, heartburn, and osteoporosis (too much of it reduces bone density in women).
Potassium chloride is a chemical composed of potassium and chlorine. In its natural form, potassium chloride is a crystal called sylvite, which is mined in order to obtain the potassium chloride compounds. It can also be obtained from salt water via the aforementioned crystallization method. The chemical has few health risks or benefits when consumed in extremely small doses like what you would find in popcorn. However, if one were to consume roughly 2.5 grams of potassium chloride in a short amount of time, they would go under cardiac arrest and die. Because of this, the chemical is even used in lethal injections.
Natural flavor comes from anything organic like animals, plants, or minerals. They are almost always processed before we eat them, but they do not have anything artificial added to them. Artificial flavor on the other hand have added chemicals or substances like tar from coal or crude oil.
Annato is an ingredient used to give the butter its yellowish-orange color. It is created via using the pulp of a achiote tree. Though it is a natural ingredient it is known for causing a large percent of food allergies. The butter itself is created by churning cream. Before it can be churned, the cream has to be cooled so that it hardens and the globs of fat cluster together. While being churned, the fat globs cluster together into larger and larger clumps. At first these clumps work with the air bubbles that the churning creates to form a foam, but as the clumps increase in size there are less areas to trap the air cells, and so the air bubbles pop creating a runny liquid called buttermilk. The buttermilk is then separated out from the actual butter. After that, the butter is kneaded to remove any remaining liquid and then it is frozen into cubes. Butter contains milk, which many people are allergic to, in addition to having large amounts of saturated fat, which can increase cholesterol.
TBHQ, also known as tert-Butylhydroquinone, is a preservative chemical that doubles as an antioxidant. There are not negative health benefits for consuming this chemical so long as it is used sparingly. If high quantities of this are consumed, it can cause stomach tumors or damage to one’s DNA. For this reason, the FDA strictly regulates how much TBHQ can be put into any given food. Another preservative used in popcorn is citric acid. Citric acid can cause damage to eyes, skin, or tooth enamel when they are exposed to high quantities of it (like splashing lemon juice all over yourself), but in something like popcorn the chemical is harmless.
Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn is made by ConAgra Foods, which is located in Omaha, Nebraska. Because Nebraska has a large corn market, ConAgra Foods is lucky enough to get their corn locally. This is both cost and environmentally efficient because the corn does not have to be shipped from someplace else, meaning that they do not have to spend nearly as much money/resources on fuel and transportation vehicles. I would guess the other ingredients are shipped, though, because not only do things like palm trees not tend to grow in Nebraska, but factories that produce salt, palm oil, and things like that do not tend to be made in Nebraska. The exception to this would be butter because there are a lot of farms in Nebraska, so it would not be a stretch to think that they order their butter locally. And of course the popcorn is shipped from ConAgra Foods to my local supermarket, so it would be more environmentally friendly to try and figure out if there is a local company from which I could purchase my popcorn.
The corn Orville Redenbacher uses contains herbicides and insecticides which can be harmful for human consumption. These allow for corn to be grown cheaper and easier which in turn allows them to price their popcorn reasonably. Herbicides are useful for killing unwanted weeds that can be harmful to plant growth. In corn’s case, these weeds can include giant ragweed, common cocklebur, fall panicum, and giant foxtail, among other things. Because of the prominence of weeds in corn fields it can be difficult to successfully grow corn organically without devoting a lot of extra labor to it, which in turn will significantly increase the cost of the corn you produce. However, it may be worth the extra cost to buy organically, because herbicides can cause problems such as Parkinson’s and skin rashes, and have enough toxicity to kill many surrounding birds and endanger their populations. Insecticides on the other hand, are used to kill insects that can damage corn crops. It has the same similar issues as herbicides in terms of keeping corn cheap to produce. But insecticides are also detrimental to the environment. They can kill nearby bird species, as well as helpful insects like bees. So again, it may be worth considering paying a bit extra to buy organically.
The packaging includes a cardboard box in addition to each popcorn bag being individually wrapped in plastic, and of course all each bag of popcorn uses paper, too since that is what the bags are made out of. The bags of popcorn are made and packaged in a typical production line manner. I could not figure out exactly how the production line a ConAgra Foods works or how much their workers get paid or anything like that because they would not tell me, but a lot of factory workers get paid fairly poorly so I would guess the people making money off of this would mainly be the people in high up positions of ConAgra Foods, like the managers and executives. Corn farmers barely get paid enough to live off of and generally have pretty tough working conditions, so I would say this is one of those businesses where the rich get richer and the poor get just enough money to keep them from rebelling. Though Nebraska actually has a unionized “National Corn Grower’s Association” (NCGA) so they are probably better off than a lot of farmers, especially those that utilize immigrant workers. Here’s the NCGA’s website: http://www.necga.org/. If you are interested in learning more about them, it is actually kind of interesting how close-knit the corn community is in Nebraska.
Overall, I would not say Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn is any worse for people or the environment than any other processed foods. And actually, even though popcorn gets a junk food reputation it is not that terrible for people. But of course it is still better to buy locally when possible.