Pot Noodle is a

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

instant noodle Instant noodles, or instant ramen, is a type of food consisting of noodles sold in a precooked and dried block with flavoring powder and/or seasoning oil. The dried noodle block was originally created by Deep frying, flash-frying cooked noodles, ...

snack food A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

s from 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, available in a selection of flavours and varieties. This

dehydrated food Food drying is a method of food preservation in which food is dried (dehydrated or desiccated). Drying inhibits the growth of bacteria, yeasts, and mold through the removal of water. Dehydration has been used widely for this purpose since anc ...

consists of noodles, assorted dried

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

and

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

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 polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

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 flavour, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

, such as

soy sauce Soy sauce (sometimes called soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of China, Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermentation (food), fermented paste of soybeans, roasted cereal, grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or ''A ...

. Certain flavours of Pot Noodle have "King" variants, which are large versions of the same flavour.

History

Instant noodles were originally invented in 1958 by

Momofuku Ando , born Go Pek-Hok (), was a Taiwanese-born Japanese inventor and businessman who founded Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. He is known as the inventor of Nissin Chikin Ramen (instant noodles) and the creator of the brands Top Ramen and Cup Noodl ...

, and ''

Cup Noodle A cup noodle is an instant ramen product in a disposable cup, first developed in 1971 and manufactured by the Japanese food company Nissin Foods. The product was first introduced in the United States as "Cup O' Noodles" in 1972, before being re ...

s'' developed by his company Nissin Food Products 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, purchased ...

launched the Pot Noodle brand in the

in 1977. In July 1995,

Best Foods 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 ...

, which produces

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

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (), colloquially referred to as "mayo" (), is a thick, creamy sauce with a rich and tangy taste that is commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, Salad#Bound salads, bound salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various o ...

, 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 packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

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. In the same year, Unilever relaunched the brand, introduced three new varieties and reduced salt levels by 50 per cent. 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 from United Kingdom, 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 Wonde ...

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

Production

Pot Noodles 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 Pot Noodle is a brand of instant noodle snack foods from the United Kingdom, available in a selection of ...

, near

Crumlin, Caerphilly Crumlin () is a town, community (Wales), community and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in Caerphilly (county borough), Caerphilly county borough in South Wales. It is situated in the Ebbw River valley, west of ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, 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 shorter than other radio waves but longer than infrared waves. Its wavelength ranges from about one meter to one millimeter, corresponding to frequency, frequencies between 300&n ...

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, 2014, and 2023, 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 The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

, Unilever sponsored a musical directed by

David Sant David Sant is a Spanish mime artist, acrobat, puppeteer, stuntman, director, actor and writer. Early life David Sant was born in Spain. Career Sant moved to the UK in the early nineties, where he began performing as a mime artist, acrobat, ...

, 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 28 December 2024, 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 * Piri Piri Chicken * Chicken Fajita * Flame Grilled Steak * Christmas Dinner * 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: Champion Chicken * Lost The Pot Noodle: Smokin' BBQ * Lost The Pot Noodle: 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 * Pot Noodle Fusions: Malaysian Curry * Pot Noodle Fusions: Korean BBQ Beef

Controversies

The Pot Noodle brand has been involved in a number of controversial advertising campaigns. In 1993, the '' Computer Graphic'' advertisement was banned after reports it caused

epileptic fit A seizure is a sudden, brief disruption of brain activity caused by abnormal, excessive, or synchronous neuronal firing. Depending on the regions of the brain involved, seizures can lead to changes in movement, sensation, behavior, awareness, o ...

s in viewers. In January 2002, Irish politician

Michael Ring Michael Ring (born 24 December 1953) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo constituency from 1997 to 2024, and previously from 1994 to 1997 for the Mayo West constituency. He served as Minister ...

TD, branded a Pot Noodle animated television advertisement as glorifying child neglect and demanded it be banned. The advertisement featured a young boy whose tongue was stuck to a frozen climbing frame. A supervisor went to get a sponge and boil a kettle of water to help free the child's tongue but was distracted and instead used the hot water to make a Pot Noodle. Ring said "the manufacturers have a responsibility to the public not to encourage youngsters to lick frozen pipes or suggest that adults should neglect a suffering child". 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 may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

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." In a September 2006 article headed "Teach Pot Noodle teens to cook" in Dublin's ''Sunday Independent'' newspaper, Cavan chef Nevin Maguire on a recent school visit was shocked "to see 60 per cent of

Leaving Cert A secondary school leaving qualification is a document signifying that the holder has fulfilled any secondary education requirements of their locality, often including the passage of a final qualification examination. For each leaving certificate ...

students had Pot Noodle for their lunch". Maguire, along with other celebrity chefs called for compulsory cookery lessons in Ireland's schools for a "new generation that thinks 'food comes in a box'".

Related products

introduced a similar

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

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

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

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, Canadian, and Australian 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 general ...

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 (, ) is an Italian hard, granular cheese produced from cow's milk and aged at least 12 months. It is a grana-type cheese, along with Grana Padano, the historic , and others. The term ''Parmesan'' may refer to either 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 British banned television advertisements British snack foods Food and drink companies of Wales Food brands of the United Kingdom Instant noodle brands Products introduced in 1978 Unilever brands Welsh brands