Quinn Popcorn – Microwave Popcorn Without the Chemicals

Popcorn is a comfort food for many of us. My family made countless batches of the stuff on top of the stove, and, later, in our popcorn machine (remember those?). Then, microwave popcorn came along. There’s no denying the convenience factor of the microwave version, but I was never that comfortable eating it, given the ingredients. 

I’m not afraid of “popcorn lung” from the buttery-flavor-ingredient diacetyl; I don’t know anyone who eats that much popcorn. But some of the other ingredients in many microwave popcorn varieties should give pause to anyone. If only there was a company who made microwave popcorn with less junk… oh, wait a minute, there is — Quinn Popcorn.

The “pure-pop” bag is compostable and recyclable.

Billing their product as “microwave popcorn reinvented”, Quinn Popcorn eschews the use of hydrogenated oils, preservatives, and diacetyl. Other microwave popcorns can contain PFOAs, also called C8, used in the lining of the bags. PFOA is also used to make stain-resistant and stick-resistant coating materials, such as Teflon. Problem is, it’s been shown to cause tumors and birth defects in animals.

Quinn Popcorn bags contain none of the nasty chemicals (found in most other kinds of microwave pop) that leaches into your popcorn.

You’ll find none of that in this popcorn, either, nor will you find a susceptor — according to the Quinn website, this is “paper coated with alu­minum flake (or met­al­ized film, or graphite) and PET (Poly­eth­yl­ene tereph­tha­late — the same plas­tic use for most soft drink bot­tles). It gets incred­i­bly hot so the chem­i­cals in the paper, plas­tic, glues, and metal are more likely to be released. Also, the heat often causes the plas­tic and metal to burn off or delam­i­nate.” When this happens, all of that goes straight into your popcorn. (Susceptors are used in other microwave popcorns to get the corn — a low-moisture ingredient, even when sitting in a pool of oil — to pop, as the waves in a microwave heat only water.)

Quinn popcorn only contains simple ingredients that you can actually pronounce.

So what will you find in Quinn Popcorn? Simple ingredients you can pronounce. I have a box of their Vermont Maple & Sea Salt in front of me, and there are four ingredients: organic popcorn, non-GMO canola oil, maple sugar, and sea salt. The popping bag is compostable; the box is recyclable.

Quinn Popcorn currently comes in three different flavors — Parmesan & Rosemary, Vermont Maple & Sea Salt, and Lemon & Sea Salt.

You’ll find intriguing flavor blends, as well. In addition to the Vermont Maple & Sea Salt, you can choose from Lemon & Sea Salt or Parmesan & Rosemary (if I had to choose just one, it would be the Parmesan & Rosemary, but they’re all very tasty).

Kristy and Coulter Lewis, Founders of Quinn Popcorn. The company is named after their son.

Quinn Popcorn was started by Kristy and Coulter Lewis, right after their son — named Quinn — was born. They are still in the start-up stages (the growing pains of which are humorously detailed on the company’s blog) of the business but successfully secured funding through Kickstarter and won Daily Candy’s Start Small Go Big competition. The popcorn is available in a limited number of stores in New England. But thanks to the glories of technology, you can also purchase these products online. Move night at home just got a whole lot better.