Instant noodle lovers get a load of this!



This week the 7th World Instant Noodle Summit took place at the KL Convention Centre. The leaders of the World Instant Noodle Association (WINA) met to discuss the future of instant noodles as a dietary staple.

Did you know that in 2009 more than 92billion servings of instant noodles were consumed? It is these numbers that are getting the instant noodle giants to look at what they can improve in terms of health, taste, convenience, hygiene, and price.

In general, instant noodles don’t rank very high in terms of being a health food, which is why more efforts are being made to change this. Maggi has just launched their new Atta Wheat Flour noodles with no MSG. This is the same stuff that is used to make chapattis and therefore a bit healthier than the regular noodles. According to Izham Mohamed, the Director General for WINA Nestle Products Malaysia Sdn Bhd, “Instant noodles should not be looked at as a whole complete meal, it should be like rice, you eat vegetables and meat with rice, you don’t eat rice on it’s own, this is the same with instant noodles you should add vegetables and protein to it to make it a balanced nutritious meal.”

“We are also looking to reduce sodium in the instant noodles but this can only be done step by step since many people are used to the flavour and it can’t be changed overnight,” Izham added.
In addition to improving the nutrition value of the noodles, the other governors are also looking to improve food safety and are taking environmental concerns into account. “We are going to take more measures to reduce our carbon footprint and the packaging will be more environmentally friendly,” Izham ensured.

WINA also does its part to help out with disaster relief worldwide. “Instant noodles are very easy to prepare, all you need is a supply of clean hot water. We therefore provide assistance to victims of natural disasters as well as those struck by poverty,” said Henry Soesanto the Vice President of Monde Nissin Corporation, Philippines.

This year’s World Instant Noodle Summit was a success with the governors drawing up a pledge to elevate noodles to “Earth Food” status. Their motto being: Instant noodles will save the Earth. To execute this pledge they plan to reinforce their efforts in providing helping hands where needed, they will accelerate the research of potentially hazardous substances activating the WINA Food Safety Research Fund, and they will facilitate consumers to make educated decisions on their diet.



The summit also featured various instant noodle booths with noodles from each country as well as a TV screening the instant noodle ads played in each of those countries. There were some innovative ones including an ad for a new low calorie instant noodle in Japan which featured women stripping off their clothes to show off their new bodies (they were covered by the instant noodle packaging though so boys stop your drooling!). We also got to see Koki Ando, the Chairman for WINA, Nissin Food Holdings Co. Ltd (Japan). His dad was the man who invented instant noodles! How cool is that? Unfortunately we were not able to talk to him since he was part of the summit proceedings and spent all of his time on stage.

All in all this was an interesting experience and I do hope that instant noodles succeed in taking on a more nutritious image.