How Does the Brand of Popcorn Affect the Amount of Popcorn Popped?

Overview

Objectives/Goals My goal with my project was to find out which microwaveable popcorn brands produced the highest percentage of popped kernals. Methods/Materials I popped thirty varying brands and types(buttered and unbuttered) of microwaveable popcorn and then counted the number of popped kernals and unpopped kernals in each bag. I used a Sharp Carousel Microwave Oven on the Popcorn Setting for each bag. I used 5 Orville Redenbacher buttered and 5 unbuttered bags; 5 ACT II buttered and 5 unbuttered bags; and 5 Ralph's Brand buttered and 5 unbuttered bags. Results Overall, the buttered popcorn produced a higher percentage of popped kernals for most of the brands(except for Orville Redenbacher's where the average for the buttered(88.5%) and unbuttered(89.5%) was very close). The highest average of popped kernals among the buttered popcorn was the ACT II(95.2%) followed by Orville Redencbacher's(88.52%) and Ralphs(79.3%). The highest average of popped kernals for the unbuttered popcorn was the Orville Redenbacher's(89.5%) followed by Ralphs(75.5%) and ACT II(67.6%). Conclusions/Discussion The data I found shows that the buttered popcorn bags produced the higher percentage of popped kernals. I think that the oil from the butter produced heat, so more kernals popped with it. If I could continue this experiment, I would investigate how the butter affects how the popcorn pops.

Competition history

• CSEF 2007 Product Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1848

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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