Aldi Has The Smartfood Popcorn Copycat You've Been Searching For

Looking for an Aldi copycat to satisfy your favorite Smartfood popcorn craving? Look no further than Clancy's white cheddar cheese popcorn. Clancy's white cheddar cheese popcorn dupe seemingly delivers that beloved flavor at a fraction of the cost — almost 40 to 50 cents less than its competitor. Who is Clancy's popcorn, you might be wondering? Clancy's Popcorn is another one of Aldi's private labels, and its taste is remarkably similar to Smartfood's popcorn, holding a striking resemblance to the brand name with its white, black, and yellow popcorn bag. 

As for other similarities, the calorie count also matches up, with about 160 calories for 2.5 cups of popcorn for both brands. However, one difference we did find was Clancy's sticker of 100% whole grain popcorn, whereas Smartfood's has 14 grams of whole grains per serving. Aldi has been shaking things up with its private labels for a while now, and Clancy's popcorn is just a small taste of what these labels have to offer. 

Private labels, like Clancy's, are often created to match or even surpass the taste and quality of well-known brands, providing shoppers with both value and flavor. Often, these illustrious brands are kept under wraps, with true identities like Clancy's hidden. Furthermore, Clancy's also has a bunch of other snacks under their banner, such as peanut butter-filled pretzels, veggie straws, apple chips, pork rinds, and much more, leaving us to wonder what other Clancy's dupes are out there.

Aldi may be behind the private brand Clancy's, but who's the real star making these affordable snack impersonators? Diving into research, we were able to uncover rumors swirling around the Midwestern brand known as Barrel O'Fun, located in Perham, Minnesota. Barrel O'Fun was cooked up in 1973 by Darrell "Tuffy" Nelson and his son Kenny, as a part of KLN Family Brands. In 2015, Barrel O'Fun was sold to Shearer's Foods, an Ohio-based company, and then again in 2018 to Old Dutch Foods. The constant change of ownership of Barrel O'Fun also remains unknown. Additionally, Old Dutch also owns the brand Humpty Dumpty which has been in business for over 80 years. 

As the trail runs cold, the mystery remains on who is behind Clancy's products. Perhaps a food recall or allergy alert will uncover the real truth behind this matter one day. Although Barrel O'Fun chips have not yet received a recall, they have garnered some backlash from customers on Reddit. Customers have expressed frustration about the bags being, well, delicate. Therefore, we recommend opening your Barrel O'Fun chips with care. But while we wait for the truth to unfold, we can still take a moment to explore Aldi's other fun popcorn flavors. Enjoy!