INSTANT NOODLES MANUFACTURING UNIT

Instant noodles appear to have originated in Japan in the 1950s and, today,are produced in over 80 countries worldwide. In 2001, over 1 million MT of instantnoodles were produced in China, about 700,000 MT in both Japan and Indonesia,270,000 MT in South Korea, 200,000 MT in Vietnam, 80,000 MT in Thailand, 50,000MT in Taiwan, and 40,000 MT in the Philippines. Convenience and affordability areimportant factors contributing to its increasing popularity. Consumption has risensteadily since 1995 in several Asian countries, except in Japan where it hasremained stable (Table 1). In 2001 per capita annual consumption of instant noodles ranged from about 5.5 kilograms in South Korea and Japan to 0.57kilograms in the Philippines.

Momofuku Ando invented the first ever instant noodles in 1958 in Japan. Ando had 4 criteria drawn up in his mind. They should be tasty, non-perishable, be ready instantly, economical and safe.

Instant noodles were born in Japan in 1958, 10-odd years after Japan’s defeat in World War II. It was the time when the advent of television as new media was about to drastically change people’s consumption patterns. “Chicken Ramen,” the world’s first instant noodles, invented by Momofuku Ando was epoch-making product, which was made by dehydrating the steamed and seasoned noodles in oil heat. He has enabled mass-production of instant noodles by establishing the entire process of industrial method of manufacturing: noodle-making, steaming, seasoning, and dehydrating in oil heat. The product that becomes ready to eat just in two minutes by adding boiling water was dubbed “a magic ramen,” and became an instant popular sensation.

The blocks of instant noodles are made by dehydrating the steamed and seasoned noodles in oil and heat. They can blend with almost anything and therefore you can see infinite flavour packages included varying even with geographical location.

Although it was a luxury item before which not everyone could afford as they were more expensive than the normal noodles. But people in Japan eventually saw that they were more convenient and slowly started adapting it as a part of their meal.

The idea of selling noodles in cup came to Ando when he went on a business trip to the USA. He saw them reusing Styrofoam coffee cups as ramen bowls. This eventually helped him create makeshift heat-resistant containers for his instant noodles.

In 1971 the actual commercialization of instant noodles was started by Nissin, Ando’s company, by introducing cup noodles and later it captured the whole world. This helped Ando grow his market by a wider margin and now Nissin has sold over 20 billion units of cup noodles.

Instant noodles with flavoring powder in a separate packet were launched in response to people’s strong demand for better quality and taste, and the product line was highly acclaimed. The forerunner of Japan Convenience Foods Industry Association was founded in 1964 when the entrants rapidly increased and competition among them became excessively fierce in this growing market. The association strove to maintain the product quality by applying Japan Agricultural Standard (JAS) and started to display the date of manufacture to be more consumer-friendly. Since then, increasingly many different flavors of instant noodles had been put into the market, and their product quality, as represented by non-fried noodles, had been improved.

Spreading first to Asia and then to Americas and Europe, instant noodles have become accepted globally. Especially with the rise of income level in developing countries in the 1990s, the consumption increased rapidly there. Annual global demand for instant noodles was estimated approximately 15 billion servings in 1990, and the demand grew to 50 billion servings in 2001 and exceeded 100 billion servings mark in 2012. The rapid growth was attributed to the universality of the five principles Momofuku Ando had set forth in developing the food, namely affordability, convenience, safety and hygiene, long shelf life, and palatability. Besides, it was pointed that the versatility of instant noodles enabled themselves to fuse with ingredients in local cooking and traditional flavors. Moreover, going ahead of rising health-consciousness, many manufacturers launched instant noodles with various healthy recipes: noodles with dietary fiber and collagen, low-calorie noodles, and low-sodium noodles, etc.