What's in the popcorn? Cinemas would rather not have to say

[Liberal_in_LA]

What's in the popcorn? Cinemas would rather not have to say
Movie-chain operators are fighting proposed federal nutrition disclosure rules on concession snacks, saying they're an unwarranted intrusion into their business.


A provision in the federal healthcare law stipulates that restaurant chains with at least 20 U.S. locations must provide the calorie content of menu items. Last summer, the Food and Drug Administration indicated that it intended to apply the provision not only to restaurants but also to grocery stores and concession stands, including those at theaters.

Alarmed at the prospect, representatives of the National Assn. of Theatre Owners have been lobbying the FDA and congressional staff members in recent weeks to exempt theaters from the nutritional labeling requirement.

They argue that the proposed rules are an unwarranted intrusion into their business because people visit theaters to consume movies, not food.

"We're not restaurants where people go to eat and satisfy themselves," Gary Klein, the theater trade group's general counsel, said. "It's dinner and a movie, not dinner at a movie."

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2009 survey based on laboratory tests commissioned by the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington found that a large popcorn serving contained as much as 1,460 calories — which is the equivalent of eating nearly three McDonald's Big Macs.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-popcorn-20110323,0,3759568.story

[hedgehog]

1. I worked at a cereal plant - we used to get butter "flavor" in 55 gallon

drums. I haven't been able to tolerate movie popcorn ever since.

[kenny blankenship]

2. I think all you have to do is smell it to know you shouldn't be putting that stuff in your body

smells like it came out of your body.

[ReggieVeggie]

3. soylent yellow!!!

*Homer drool*

[msongs]

4. so, Movie theaters, what % of your income/profit is from sales of food ? nt

[obxhead]

14. My guess is a significant proportion.

A lot of the money from the actual movies playing has to go to the producer of said movie.

I miss the good old days of the drive in with a cooler loaded up from home.

[ehrnst]

20. 85%

http://money.blogs.time.com/2009/12/07/movie-theaters-make-85-profit-at-concession-stands/

[hootinholler]

23. Yeah but every winter they played the same old movie

"Closed for the season"

I never figured out who was in it.

:shrug:

-Hoot

[obxhead]

24. The good old days of the drive in for me

was in south FL. They stayed open year round ;)

[BadgerKid]

5. I avoid fake butter (diacetyl damages lungs)

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/329640_popcorn30.html

That buttery aroma might be toxic, too
Common chemical in popcorn at center of concern

By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
P-I SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

Pop Weaver, one of the largest producers of microwave popcorn, is removing a controversial chemical flavoring agent from its products.

The chemical -- diacetyl -- adds buttery taste. Government worker safety investigators have linked exposure to the synthetic butter to the sometimes fatal destruction of the lungs of hundreds of workers in food production and flavoring factories.

And while Pop Weaver has dropped diacetyl from its product, it remains in widespread use in thousands of other consumer products, including the microwave popcorn brands Orville Redenbacher and Act II.

Despite the worker safety findings -- and despite scores of jury decisions and settlements awarding millions of dollars to workers who sued after having their lungs destroyed by exposure to diacetyl -- neither the Food and Drug Administration nor the Consumer Product Safety Commission have investigated. The FDA years ago declared the chemical safe for consumption. Labels on almost all products containing it call it a flavoring and only rarely do the labels mention diacetyl.

[ReggieVeggie]

6. microwave popcorn? Pfft!

I only eat homemade. Well, home-cooked anyway. I tend to eat non-buttered popcorn at home. If I'm ever forced to buy microwave, I buy the least butter-flavored available.

[BadgerKid]

7. Hot-air poppers work, too,...loudly. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. The nice thing about allergies to food dyes is

I have to avoid almost all artificially flavored products, because they go hand in hand with food dyes.
It took me awhile to realize micro wave popcorn was a culprit.
Good old FDA...bought and paid for.

[gratuitous]

8. "We're not restaurants"

Yeah, just try bringing in your own food to the not-a-restaurant. I love munching popcorn with a movie, but as I've achieved a certain (ahem) age, I find I can no longer tolerate the "buttery" flavoring. There is one chain, Century Theaters, that uses real, live butter, and they get my meager entertainment dollars.

Disclose, dudes.

[ReggieVeggie]

9. I hope that smiley isn't getting poisoned

:popcorn:

[CoffeeCat]

10. Another example where the corporations...

...want to hide information from consumers--because the big boys at these corporations know
that they're harming us.

So, once again, the look to our government to help them hide information from us.

Is anyone else tired of corporations finding such solace and help from a government that is
supposed to serve THE PEOPLE?

It's really perverse.

It sure as hell isn't a democracy, I know that.

[WolverineDG]

11. that "butter" isn't butter; it's oil

& has been since the '60's when my older cousin worked the concession stand at the movies. He told me to never ask for butter on popcorn at the movies. He had to open too many metal jars of the stuff & pour it into the dispenser. The smell of it made him sick to his stomach.

on edit: it's the same crap they use in "self-basting" turkeys like "Butter" ball.

dg

[kenny blankenship]

12. it smells like vomit.

It's no wonder he wanted to lurch. It's like yawning: one person smells another vomiting and they start to feel like they're going to throw up too.

[AsahinaKimi]

13. There was a time they used Coconut

oil with the butter in popcorn at theatres but people demanded they get rid of that, because it cause super high Cholesterol Levels. I worked at a theatre consession for a while. The stuff they use now just doesn't taste as good. Most people who go to the movies, don't want much butter on their popcorn. In the two years I worked there, I don't recall anyone saying ..

"Hey, slather that stuff on!!!"

[progressoid]

15. "anti-foaming agent"

I remember Siskel and Ebert doing a bit about movie snacks on Letterman a long time ago. Apparently one of the ingredients in the butter flavor is an anti-foaming agent. But nobody in the industry would tell Siskel and Ebert what that was. :shrug:

[cbdo2007]

16. A bunch of people in a Missouri plant that made the "butter" got cancer....

a decade or so ago. They had a class action lawsuit about it, but I don't remember more of the details.

Definitely don't use the butter stuff.

[donco]

17. Whatever it is

it must be damn expensive…the price they charge per bag.:eyes:

[unblock]

19. the logic is mind-boggling. they're not really restaurants, so they shouldn't mind showing details.

they're objecting to the regulation because they're not really restaurants, people go to see the movie, not to eat to satisfy themselves. well, then, why not disclose the ingredient list? you just said it was incidental to your real business, so the regulation isn't going to hurt your business, right?

duhhherrrrr..

[ehrnst]

21. 85% of their income. You bet they need to disclose.

http://money.blogs.time.com/2009/12/07/movie-theaters-make-85-profit-at-concession-stands/

[DireStrike]

22. Ooh, this'll hurt 'em.

I can see why they're fighting it. I can't see why they're being dishonest.