Instant Noodles are Unhealthy!

Just Five Minutes?

This very popular ad for Maggi Noodles and the popularity of Instant Noodles has been specifically for the kids in India.  But are these noodles safe for kids?  Or even adults?

Well, it turns out that they aren’t!

Ahmedabad-based Consumer Education and Research Society has done tests on 15 brands of noodles (including Maggi, Top Ramen, Knorr, Ching’s Secret, Sunfeast Yippee!, Foodles, Tasty Treat and Wai Wai X-press) to check out their claims on health quotient of these products.  The ingredients that were checked for were Fat, Fibre, Sodium, Calcium, and Iron.  The results are pretty depressing:

• Sodium content was found to be in the range of 821mg per 100 grams -much above limits set by the British food safety agency. Knorr Soupy Noodles contained the highest sodium content of 1,943 mg per 100 grams, while the lowest sodium content was in Maggi Meri Masala at 821 mg per 100 grams.
• Top Ramen oat noodles had less than the claimed 6.8 per cent of oat flour. It also claims to be full of fibre with fibre content at 5.6 grams.
• However, according to UK standards, high in fibre can be claimed only if fibre content is at least six grams per 100 grams.
• The quantity of vegetables is not enough to contribute to the nutritional content in Maggi New Vegetable Atta Noodles.
• Wai Wai X-press Instant Noodles Masala Delight claimed to be enriched with iron. However, iron was found to be only 2.6 mg against the claim of seven mg.

As you can see these noodles aren’t what they are billed to be and in any case not healthy for long term or regular consumption.What is rather surprising is that this kind of a study had not been done before.  Moreover, the fact that Indian Food Administration officials never figured this out doesn’t show that they are doing their work even half well.