Mike is pretty laid-back about the curious substance that he found inside a bag of Pop Secret popcorn. “Things happen. When one makes millions of something, there will be issues with a few,” he observes. That’s true. He’s disappointed, though, because Pop Secret hasn’t kept him updated him on what the heck it was.

This tale is kind of familiar: when a blogger found a weird black mold on one of her tampons, it took a whole lot of pageviews to get Kimberly-Clark to send her a satisfactory response. At least they assured her that it was a harmless mold: Mike hasn’t received any response at all.

My wife and I recently purchased a box of Pop Secret “Extra Butter” Popcorn. We don’t eat popcorn often, maybe once every other week. You can imagine my surprise when I opened a new box (still within the “use by” date) and found one pack covered in a black goo. Upon closer inspection, there was a small hole in the plastic wrapper, almost like it was never fully sealed. Other packs in the box had seemed to ooze a yellow oil into the plastic wrapper.

I contacted Pop Secret via their Facebook page. They contacted me by email and sent me a return envelope so I could send them the package, and some coupons for 2 free boxes of popcorn. I never heard from them again, and I was somewhat disappointed. I was more curious as to what happened than angry about it. I guess mold?

Well, at least it would be hard to unknowingly eat this popcorn, unlike the moldy tampon.

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