Pot Noodle

Pot Noodleis abrandofinstant noodlesnack foodsfrom theUnited Kingdom, available in a selection of flavours and varieties. Thisdehydrated foodconsists of noodles, assorted driedvegetablesandflavouringpowder. It is prepared by adding boiling water, which rapidly softens the noodles and dissolves the powdered sauce.
The product is packaged in aplasticpot, from which the prepared noodles can be eaten. Many pots contain a sachet ofsauce, such assoy sauce.
Certain flavours of Pot Noodle have "King" variants, which are large versions of the same flavour.
Instant noodles were originally invented in 1958 byMomofuku Ando, andCup Noodlesdeveloped by his companyNissin Food Productsin 1971.
Golden Wonderlaunched the Pot Noodle brand in theUnited Kingdomin 1977.In July 1995,Best Foods, which producesHellmannsmayonnaise, paid then ownerDalgety plc$280 million for its Golden Wonder Pot Noodle instant hot snacks manufacturing business.
Bestfoods, known as CPC international before 1997, was itself acquired byUnileverin 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 toTayto. 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 calledThe Nation's Noodle(renamedNoodle Potin 2016) in direct competition with their former brand.
Pot Noodles are manufactured inCroespenmaen, nearCrumlin, Caerphilly,Wales, 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 amicrowaveinstead 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 2008Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Unilever sponsored a musical directed byDavid Sant, and created by advertising agencyMother, set in a Pot Noodle factory.
As of 28 December 2024, flavours of Pot Noodle currently produced are:
The Pot Noodle brand has been involved in a number of controversial advertising campaigns.
In January 2002, Irish politicianMichael RingTD, 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 theIndependent Television Commission.The related poster campaign, revolving around the "Hot Noodle" range with a tagline of "hurt me, you slag" was withdrawn by Unilever after theAdvertising 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 brasshornin 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'sSunday Independentnewspaper, Cavan chefNevin Maguireon a recent school visit was shocked "to see 60 per cent ofLeaving Certstudents 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'".
Golden Wonderintroduced a similarconvenience food"Pot Rice" at the beginning of the 1980s. Pot Rice was made from dehydratedrice,wheatprotein, vegetables, and flavourings, sold in a plastic pot. Pot Rice was later manufactured byUnileverandKnorrwhen 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 brandedmashed potatosnack, 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 ofParmesan cheese, 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.