What is microwave popcorn made of?
Microwave popcorn takes corn, paper, palm oil, table salt and adhesive directly. Trace them back and you pass 27 made things on the way to 13 raw materials.
How microwave popcorn is made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 13 raw materials
- Corn goes straight in
- Water through adhesive
- Kaolin through paper
- Limestone through paper
- Oil palm fruit through palm oil
- Rock salt through table salt
- Seawater through table salt
- Timber through paper, wood pulp
- Crude oil through adhesive, paraffin wax
- Air through adhesive, acrylic, sulfuric acid
- Natural gas through adhesive, polyethylene, ethylene
- Sulfur through adhesive, acrylic, sulfuric acid
- Coal through adhesive, epoxy, acetone, benzene, toluene
Made along the way: 23 things
Chemicals and fuels 18
Paraffin waxCaustic sodaQuicklimeOxygen gasHydrogen peroxideEthylenePropyleneAmmoniaSulfuric acidMethanolPhenolAcetoneChlorineNitric acidHydrogenNaphthaBenzeneToluene
Plastics and fibers 4
Wood and paper 1
What it is packed in
On the line, but left out of everything above, because it holds the finished thing rather than goes into it.