The book, titled Pop Rocks: The Inside Story of America's Revolutionary Candy, was based on interviews with food technologists, engineers, marketing managers, and members of Billy Mitchell's family, along with the author's experience.
[10] The water and sugar mixture is then cooled to 280 °F (138 °C), and while being intensely stirred, it is pressurized with carbon dioxide at 730 pounds per square inch [psi] (50 atm).
[11] This was, in part, caused by the false assumption that Pop Rocks contain an acid/base mixture (such as baking soda and vinegar) which produces large volumes of gas when mixed through chewing and saliva.
[12] One of these myths involved child actor John Gilchrist (playing the character Little Mikey in 1970s Life cereal television commercials), who was falsely rumored to have died after consuming excess amounts of Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola.
The Food and Drug Administration set up a hotline there to assure anxious parents that the fizzing candy would not cause their children to choke.
In another stomach used as an experimental counterpart, only a large amount of sodium bicarbonate along with acid and soda (and without any Pop Rocks) was able to cause a gastric rupture.