Changes

The basic concept of popcorn has not shifted much. However, although variations of the basic popcorn have been around for sometime. Caramel popcorn , among the most popular variation of the salted or plain type popcorn, has been around since the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. In some countries, sweet popcorn became increasingly popular, rather than the salty brand, such as in parts of Europe. <ref>For more on popcorn varieties, see: Podojil, J. (2013). <i>Popcorn favorites: everything you want to know about popcorn and more.</i> Bloomington, IN: Trafford On Demand Pub.</ref>

Many changes to popcorn have focused on technology changes to making popcorn. For instance, in 1978 the Presto company introduced what would become a popular air popper. This was introduced as a healthier way to make popcorn as it did not require oil to make. The association of air popper popcorn with health have not gone unnoticed by the health food industry, where such popcorn is advertised as one of the health snacks to consume in trying to loose weight. Microwave popcorn has been around since the 1940s, but only since the 1970s and 1980s, in particular, it was more widely commercialized. Packing of popcorn improved, allowing microwaved popcorn to be increasingly exported by the United States. For some, however, the fact that microwaved popcorn generally has more fat, sometimes taking up to 60% of the calories in this type of popcorn, made it less attractive. Various artificial flavoring and coating chemicals used also make it potentially damaging to the environment and could have long-term health implications. More recently, markets and packing has focused on creating popcorn products that mimic moviegoer experience popcorn. Such brands apply brightly painted boxes or other iconography, although with applying a lot of butter or butter substitutes, to the popcorn to create that movie going taste that people often associate with popcorn.<ref>For more on recent technologies associated with popcorn, see: Smith 2013: 686. </ref>