Pot Noodle before water added (King size Chicken & Mushroom)

Pot Noodle is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...

of instant noodle snack foods, available in a selection of flavours and varieties. This dehydrated food consists of noodles, assorted dried

vegetables Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems ...

and

flavouring A flavoring (or flavouring), also known as flavor (or flavour) or flavorant, is a food additive used to improve the taste or smell of food. It changes the perceptual impression of food as determined primarily by the chemoreceptors of the gus ...

powder. It is prepared by adding boiling water, which rapidly softens the noodles and dissolves the powdered sauce. The product is packaged in a

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

pot, from which the prepared noodles can be eaten. Many pots contain a sachet of

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

, such as soy sauce. Pot Noodle has been linked to

lad culture Lad culture (also the new lad, laddism) was a media-driven, principally British and Irish subculture of the 1990s and early 2000s. The image of the "lad"—or "new lad"—was that of a generally middle class figure espousing attitudes typically at ...

, with its advertising and packaging being the source of some controversy.

History

Instant noodles were originally invented in 1958 by

Momofuku Ando , was an inventor and businessman who founded Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. He is known as the inventor of instant noodles (ramen noodles) and the creator of the brands Top Ramen and Cup Noodles. Early life and education Ando was born Go P ...

, and ''

Cup Noodle Cup noodle is a registered trademark of Nissin Foods and is known as precooked instant noodle with flavoring powder and/or seasoning sauce sold in a polystyrene, polyethylene, or paper cup. The flavoring can be in a separate packet or loose in ...

s'' developed by his company

Nissin Foods Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. is a Japanese food company that specializes in the production and sale of convenience food and instant noodles. History Founding and early years The company was established in Japan on September 1, 1948, by T ...

in 1971.

Golden Wonder Golden Wonder is a British company that manufactures snack foods, most notably crisps. These include Ringos, Golden Wonder and Transform-A-Snack. Since 2006, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the Northern Irish company Tayto, after bei ...

launched the Pot Noodle brand in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 1977. In July 1995,

Best Foods Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...

, which produces

Hellmanns Hellmann's and Best Foods are American brand names that are used for the same line of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, sauce, salad dressing, condiments and other food products. They have been owned by the British multinational company Unilever sin ...

mayonnaise, paid then owner

Dalgety plc Dalgety plc—as Dalgety and Company—was for more than a century a major pastoral and agricultural company or stock and station agency in Australia and New Zealand. Controlled from London it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and Austr ...

$280 million for its Golden Wonder Pot Noodle instant hot snacks manufacturing business. Bestfoods, known as CPC international before 1997, was itself acquired by

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

in June 2000. Unilever kept the Pot Noodle brand and its sole production factory, after it sold the rest of the Golden Wonder business in January 2006 to Tayto. Golden Wonder later established another line of pot noodles called ''

The Nation's Noodle The Nation's Noodle was a brand of instant noodle snack foods, available in a selection of flavors and varieties. History The product was launched in the United Kingdom on 3 August 2009, by Symington's, using the Golden Wonder name. Golden Wond ...

'' (renamed ''Noodle Pot'' in 2016) in direct competition with their former brand.

Production

Harvest festival offerings at St Andrews Church, Southgate 02

Pots Noodle are manufactured in

Croespenmaen Croespenmaen is a locality near Crumlin, Caerphilly, Wales. The nearby Croespenmaen Industrial Estate is the site of Unilever's Pot Noodle factory, which became the topic of a 2006 advertising campaign, showing fictitious Pot Noodle mines in Wales ...

, near Crumlin, Caerphilly,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, which became the topic of an advertising campaign of 2006, showing fictitious Pot Noodle mines in Wales. The factory typically produces 175 million pots annually. Around 2006, Pot Noodle's recipe was changed to make the product healthier. This mostly involved cutting down on the amount of salt in the product. A "GTi" variant, prepared in a

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ra ...

instead of adding boiling water, was introduced at the end of the 2000s and was the first Pot Noodle to contain real meat. In 2007, the brand changed their logo. Pot Noodle has often given promotional gifts away, including a 'horn' and a 'spinning fork.' During the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Unilever sponsored a musical directed by

David Sant David Sant (born 1968) is a Spanish mime artist, acrobat, puppeteer, stuntman, director, actor and writer. Early life and career Sant was born in Spain in 1968. He discovered the theatre at the age of seventeen thanks to his literature teach ...

, and created by advertising agency

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

, set in a Pot Noodle factory.

Flavours

Currently produced flavours

As of 27 May 2022, flavours of pot noodle currently produced are: * King Bombay Bad Boy * King Chow Mein * King Chicken And Mushroom * King Beef & Tomato * King Original Curry * King Sticky Rib * Korma * Doner Kebab * Sweet & Sour * Original Curry * Chow Mein * Beef & Tomato * Chicken & Mushroom * Sticky Rib * Bombay Bad Boy * Pulled Pork * Piri Piri Chicken * Lost The Pot Noodle: Cheese & Tomato * Lost The Pot Noodle: Vegetable * Lost The Pot Noodle: Noodle Curry * Lost The Pot Noodle: Roast Chicken * Lost The Pot Noodle: Sweet Chilli * Lost The Pot Noodle: NEW Champion Chicken * Lost The Pot Noodle: NEW Smokin' BBQ * Lost The Pot Noodle: NEW Chip Shop Curry * King Pot Pasta: Creamy Carbonara * King Pot Pasta: Bolognese * Pot Pasta: Tomatoey Mozarella * Pot Pasta: Bolognese * Pot Pasta: Creamy Carbonara * Pot Noodle Fusions: Chilli Chicken * Pot Noodle Fusions: Thai Green Curry * Pot Noodle Fusions: Katsu Curry

Controversy

The Pot Noodle brand has been involved in a number of controversial advertising campaigns. In August 2002, a series of television adverts that described Pot Noodle as "the slag of all snacks" was withdrawn after complaints to the

Independent Television Commission The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003. History The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...

. The related poster campaign, revolving around the "Hot Noodle" range with a tagline of "hurt me, you slag" was withdrawn by Unilever after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints that "the tone could be interpreted as condoning violence". In May 2005, the Advertising Standards Authority received 620 complaints, about a series of advertisements featuring a man with a large brass

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

in his trousers, with the suggestive slogan "Have you got the Pot Noodle horn?". Some of the complaints described them as "tasteless and offensive". The three advertisements had been already approved for restricted times, primarily after the 9:00pm watershed. The ASA did not uphold the complaints. While it accepted the campaign was "a little crude," they deemed it harmless and said that "the timing restriction was appropriate."

Related products

introduced a similar

convenience food Convenience food, also called tertiary processed food, is food that is commercially prepared (often through processing) to optimise ease of consumption. Such food is usually ready to eat without further preparation. It may also be easily p ...

"Pot Rice" at the beginning of the 1980s. Pot Rice was made from dehydrated

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

protein, vegetables, and flavourings, sold in a plastic pot. Pot Rice was later manufactured by

and Knorr when the Pot Noodle brand went through a series of acquisitions and takeovers in the 1990s. Posh Noodle was a variation on the typical pot noodle, consisting of thinner, ramen like noodles and available in three Asian themed flavours, launched in 2003. Pot Rice was discontinued at the beginning of the 2000s. Pot Rice flavours have included "Chicken Risotto", "Chicken Curry", "Beef & Tomato" and "Savoury Beef". Pot Rice received a limited relaunch in 2018. "Pot Mash" was a similar branded

mashed potato Mashed potato or mashed potatoes (American and Canadian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt and pepper. It is generally served as a ...

snack, sold by the makers of Pot Noodle in the United Kingdom and Ireland at the end of the 1990s. "Pot Casserole" consisting of dried vegetables and soya protein was introduced during the 1980s, but discontinued before the turn of the century. "Pot Pasta" and "Pot Spaghetti" combined dried pasta pieces with a sachet of

Parmesan cheese Parmesan ( it, Parmigiano Reggiano; ) is an Italian hard, granular cheese produced from cows’ milk and aged at least 12 months. It is named after two of the areas which produce it, the provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia (''Parmigiano'' ...

, and was available for some time in the 1990s. However, in 2017, Pot Pasta was relaunched. "Pot Sweet" was a dessert range available in four varieties, introduced in the mid-1980s, and discontinued shortly afterwards. In 2020, Lost the Pot Noodle, instant noodles in loose plastic packaging instead of a plastic pot, was launched in 3 flavours: curry, roast chicken and sweet chilli. From August 2021, Pot Noodle launched another new range of pots, titled 'Pot Noodle Fusions'. This range hearkened back to earlier ranges like 'Posh Noodle' and 'Asian Street Style' with more exotic world food flavours including Chilli Chicken, Katsu Curry and the previously available Thai Green Curry flavours, as a partial rebrand and partial new launch.

References

External links

*
Unilever brand information
{{Noodle Products introduced in 1978 British snack foods Food brands of the United Kingdom Instant noodle brands Unilever brands Welsh brands Food and drink companies of Wales