Food
Instant noodles
Introduction
Instant noodles are cheap and tasty ... and kids love them. But they're not a nutritious choice.
We looked at 29 instant noodle, pasta and rice snacks. We found many of these “snacks” contain a meal’s worth of salt and fat without any valuable nutrients. Only 1 of the instant noodle products in our survey met all our nutrition criteria.
Our criteria
We were looking for products that contained per serve:
- less than 10g fat
- less than 5g saturated fat
- less than 1150mg sodium.
All the products we looked at were “single serve” – so you’d eat the whole lot in one go – and ranged in size from 125g to around 500g when they were ready to eat.
Almost all the instant noodles were too high in fat, saturated fat and sodium. The rice and pasta snacks were more promising: we found a handful of lower fat and sodium choices (see What we found).
What we found
Noodles
The only instant noodle product that met all our criteria was Maggi Extra Delicious 2 Minute Noodles Chicken Flavour.
Unlike most instant noodles (which are fried), Maggi Extra Delicious Noodles are baked – so they’re lower in fat. One serving contains 1.9g of fat (less than 1g of this is saturated) and 970mg of sodium. That’s considerably less than the 14g of fat (of which 6.5g is saturated) and 1630mg of sodium in regular Maggi 2 Minute Noodles. If you choose Maggi, make sure you pick the right one off the shelf – go for the “extra delicious” version.
To see how instant noodles stacked up against another quick and convenient hunger-buster, we bought a Big Ben Classic Mince & Cheese Pie and compared the nutrition information.
We were surprised to find that Fantastic 2 Minute Noodles Oriental Flavour had much the same amount of energy, fat and saturated fat as the Big Ben pie. A serving of these noodles contributes 1600kJ to your energy intake – and it contains 15.4g of fat (7.4g of this is saturated).
But Fantastic 2 Minute Noodles wasn’t the highest-fat product we found. The worst offenders were Trident Hot & Spicy 2 Minute Noodles and Nissin Instant Noodle with Soup Base Spicy Flavour. Both contained 21g of fat – and more than half of the fat in the Trident product was saturated.
For average adults, saturated fat should contribute less than 10 percent towards total daily energy intake. This equates to no more than 23g of saturated fat.
Rice and pasta snacks
Five of the rice and pasta snacks met our nutrition criteria for fat, saturated fat and sodium. They were:
- Sun Rice Quick Cups Chicken Rice
- Kraft Easy Mac Cheese
- Maggi Snack on Pasta Sour Cream & Chives
- Naked Panda Sweet Thai Chilli Chicken with Noodles
- San Remo La Pasta Carbonara Flavour.
Sun Rice, Kraft, Maggi, Naked Panda and San Remo may have other flavours that meet our criteria – check the product’s nutrition information panel to find out.
Products meeting our criteria
Sodium overload
Too much salt is bad for you … and most Kiwis eat more than they need. The Ministry of Health recommends a range of daily sodium intakes.
The recommended maximum daily limit for adults – which is what you can consume without an increased risk of high blood pressure – is 2300mg per day (just over a teaspoon of fine salt). For good health you need only 920mg of sodium a day.
Four of the noodle products in our survey will see you reach or exceed the recommended maximum daily limit in one hit. They are:
- Trident Noodle Man Chicken Flavour
- Trident Spicy Thai Coconut Chicken 2 Minute Noodles
- Nong Shim Big Shin Cup Noodle Soup Hot & Spicy
- Nong Shim Udon Noodle Soup Seafood & Spicy
Each of these had at least 2300mg sodium per serve.
To reduce the sodium content of instant noodles, hold back on the powdered flavour sachet. Add half and throw the rest away.
Products compared
Guide to the table
Serving size shows the prepared weight of most products.
A = dry weight (after cooking the product will be heavier - but the per-serve nutrition will be the same).
Traffic light labels
We strongly support “traffic light” labels because they help consumers see which products are healthier.
Traffic-light labels use green, amber and red symbols to show the total fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium in a product. A green light signals a healthier choice; a red light warns you the food is high in something you may be trying to cut down on.
However, we couldn’t use the traffic-light method for these instant snacks. Traffic-light labelling is based on a standardised weight of a product (such as 100g). It also requires all products to be assessed on the same basis (in this case, as “ready to eat”). But some of the instant snacks in our survey didn’t state the quantity of liquid to be added – so we couldn’t calculate their “ready to eat” weight. That meant we couldn’t compare all the products on the same basis.
Instead we’ve compared all products on a “per serve” basis and given them a pass or fail for their total fat, saturated fat and sodium content.
Our advice
- Look for products with less than 10g total fat, 5g saturated fat, and 1150mg of sodium per serve.
- Always read the labels – even when you're deciding between two flavours of the same brand or between two brands of the same flavour.
- Use regular dried noodles and pasta instead of instant; and serve them with some lean protein and vegetables to get a boost of vitamins and minerals. It’ll take longer to prepare but it’s more nutritious.
- For substantial snacks that offer protein to keep you feeling full and give you fibre for good health, avoid instant snacks. Try some of the “good DIY snacks” in our product comparison table instead.
More from consumer.org.nz
Report by Libby Manley.