Eating a bag of freshly popped, buttery popcorn while watching a movie on demand or DVD is a guilty pleasure of mine. You have to be careful though about the type of popcorn you use though. I’ve tried a variety of different methods, brands, and flavors, and I’ve settled on Act II butter flavor as my favorite microwave popcorn (the plain butter flavor, not the extreme or movie theatre style—and no, I’m not worried about the deadly butter flavoring). Compared to the other popcorn out there, it seems to be about the best in ingredients and nutritional value, and it only takes 2:35 to pop. Easy.
I was a little concerned when I opened up the last two boxes of popcorn and found that the buttery goodness inside of some of the packages had leaked out into the plastic wrapper. The two 12-pack boxes were purchased at different times (December 2007 and January 2008), but from the same Wal-Mart store #3652 in West Sacramento. In each box, one of the bags was unusable—the buttery goo had spread all over the outside of the packages. Even if they were safe to eat, I’d hate to clean the microwave after that stuff melted inside it. The other bags where oozing had occurred were only slightly oily, and they tasted and smelled fine.
Could this have been a manufacturing defect? Did Wal-Mart store the product in a hot warehouse? (If it had happened in a hot Sacramento summer, I’d tend to believe that to be the problem, but this was in the middle of the chilly winter.) I don’t know. I am writing to Act II and letting them know about this incident, and I will let you know what, if anything, they say or do in response.
What about you? Have you encountered escaped buttery goo in your own packages of microwave popcorn—Act II or any other brand? Please leave your comments below.
Here are pictures of the actual bags. DISCLAIMER I’m not responsible if you (a) find the pictures gross and disgusting, or (b) start licking your monitor just thinking about all that delicious butter flavor. grin
Received an immediate automated response:
Only a week later, I received in the mail a nice letter from ConAgra Foods Consumer Affairs division (along with coupons for two free replacement packages of Act II Popcorn Snack Product — Right on!) Here is what it said: