Popcorn’s popularity is on the rise, and it is increasingly becoming one of our most-loved snacks. But how many times have you settled down to enjoy this treat only to discover, upon opening the packaging, that you are getting less popcorn than you expected?
Direct Air recently conducted a study using our favorite popcorn brands and flavors to discover which manufacturers leave consumers feeling disheartened by the amount of air in popcorn bags.
While we all know the importance of air within food packaging, specifically nitrogen, to maintain product freshness and protect our treats from damage, some brands are using considerably more than others.
The worst culprit was Proper Corn Peanut Butter & Almond, with 71% air in their bags. The best result was Marks & Spencer Salted Caramel at 31%.
See below for the full results:
| Brand/Flavour | Price per 100g (£) | % of air |
| Proper Corn Peanut Butter & Almond | 1.60 | 71 |
| Nude Sweet & Salty | 1.56 | 62 |
| Nude Simply Salted | 1.92 | 62 |
| Tyrrell’s Sweet | 1.94 | 57 |
| Metcalfe’s Toffee Apple | 2.25 | 57 |
| Tyrell’s Sea Salted | 2.50 | 55 |
| Tesco Salted | 1.24 | 55 |
| Marks & Spencer Salted | 1.54 | 55 |
| Metcalfe’s Sweet ‘N’ Salt | 1.25 | 54 |
| Proper Corn Perfectly Sweet | 1.78 | 54 |
| Waitrose Sea Salty | 1.43 | 53 |
| Waitrose Sweet & Salty | 1.11 | 53 |
| Tesco Sweet & Salty | 0.96 | 52 |
| Butterkist Cinema Sweet | 1.70 | 48 |
| Butterkist Toffee | 1.00 | 44 |
| Marks & Spencer Salted Caramel | 0.57 | 31 |
These results show that for the average £1.58 spent on a bag of popcorn, a whopping 86p is spent on just the air alone, at an average air fill of 54% per bag!
Not only are consumers left feeling out-of-pocket, but this also contributes to landfill waste at an extortionate level.
Popcorn bags, also known as ‘pillow packaging’ have been estimated to take at least eight decades to degrade but could take longer. With this in mind, manufacturers should surely take every step possible to reduce their plastic usage.
Unfortunately, it appears some brands are ignoring the public outcry to protect our environment and reduce the amount of packaging left in landfills. Marks & Spencer has pledged to reduce all its plastic packaging by 20%, and it looks like it is already on track to do so.
However, other brands are needlessly increasing the amount of air used and, therefore, the size of their packaging. This contributes to the ever-growing plastic problem and carbon emissions. The larger the packaging, the larger the transport needed to bring these products to our supermarket shelves, and therefore, the more vehicles on the road.
Perhaps it is time to increase the pressure on these companies to better our environment and prevent consumers from feeling duped by their purchases.
