Sarah Bennedsen, David Chen, Woo Chang Chung, Jessica Dzindzio, Rashi Garg, Ashish Gupta, Christine Liu, Debanjan Pain, Saba Qadir, Rafi Shamim, David Zhao

Advisor: Dr. Paul Quinn
Assistant: Sally Warner

ABSTRACT

Popcorn is one of the most widely consumed snack foods in America . On average, Americans eat 17 billion quarts of popcorn annually. In this experiment, it is shown that by reducing the pressure surrounding the kernel at the time of popping, the flake size or volume of the popped corn is increased. Pressures close to 30 inches of mercury (Hg) below atmospheric pressure were tested in a movie popper, a pot, and a microwave. The parameters commonly used in industry to measure the quality of popcorn are ? (percentage waste), s (total volume per mass), and p (average flake size). The results show that as the pressure decreases, s and p increase and ? decreases. This research can benefit the food industry because popcorn is often bought by weight and sold by volume, so larger popped kernels equal larger profits.