Pot Noodle
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Pot Noodle is a brand of instant noodle snack foods from the United Kingdom, available in a selection of flavours and varieties. This dehydrated food consists of noodles, assorted dried vegetables and flavouring 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 pot, from which the prepared noodles can be eaten. Many pots contain a sachet of sauce, such as soy sauce.
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, and Cup Noodles developed by his company Nissin Food Products in 1971.
Golden Wonder launched the Pot Noodle brand in the United Kingdom in 1977.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In July 1995, Best Foods, which produces Hellmanns mayonnaise, paid then owner Dalgety plc $280 million for its Golden Wonder Pot Noodle instant hot snacks manufacturing business.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Bestfoods, known as CPC international before 1997, was itself acquired by Unilever in June 2000.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Golden Wonder later established another line of pot noodles called The Nation's Noodle (renamed Noodle Pot in 2016) in direct competition with their former brand.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Production
Pot Noodles are manufactured in Croespenmaen, near Crumlin, Caerphilly, Wales, which became the topic of an advertising campaign of 2006, showing fictitious Pot Noodle mines in Wales.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> The factory typically produces 175 million pots annually.<ref name=":0" />
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 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, Unilever sponsored a musical directed by David Sant, and created by advertising agency Mother, set in a Pot Noodle factory.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
As part of a sustainability commitment by Pot Noodle's parent company, Unilever, half of the Pot Noodle range and roughly 80% of the most popular flavours will switch to paper pots rather than plastic pots.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Flavours
Currently produced flavours
There are four current product lines: Pot Noodles, Pot Noodle Fusions, Lost The Pot Noodles and Pot Pasta.
Some flavours have been discontinued and then reintroduced later.
| Flavour | Flavour Packet Used | King Variant? | Introduced | More |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken & Mushroom | Soy Sauce | Template:Ya | 1977 | |
| Original Curry | Mango Sauce (Chutney) | Template:Ya | 1977 | |
| Beef & Tomato | Tomato Sauce | Template:Ya | 1977 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Bombay Bad Boy | Hot Sauce | Template:Ya | 2002 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Sticky Rib | Soy and Ginger | Template:Ya | 2010 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Chinese Chow Mein | Soy Sauce | Template:MaybeTemplate:Efn | Between 1992 and 1996 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Sweet & Sour | Sweet and Sour Sauce | Template:Na | Before 2011 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Piri Piri Chicken | Hot Sauce | Template:Na | 2021 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Doner Kebab | Hot Sauce | Template:Ya | 2022 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Chicken Fajita | Tomato Sauce | Template:Na | 2024 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Flame Grilled Steak | Soy Sauce | Template:Na | 2025 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Flavour | Flavour Packet Used | Introduced | More |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katsu Curry | Mango Sauce (Chutney) | 2021 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Thai Green Curry | Soy Sauce | 2021 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Chilli Chicken | Hot Sauce | 2021 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Korean BBQ Beef | Soy and Ginger | 2024 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Flavour | Reintroduced | More |
|---|---|---|
| Chip Shop Curry | 2022 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Champion Chicken |
2022 | |
| Smokin' BBQ | 2022 | File:V-label-vegan.png |
| Flavour class | King Variants? | Introduced |
|---|---|---|
| Bolognese | Template:Ya | 2017 |
| Carbonara | Template:Ya | 2017 |
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 seizures in viewers.<ref name="Erlichman">Template:Cite journal</ref>
In January 2002, Irish politician Michael Ring 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".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In May 2005, the Advertising Standards Authority received 620 complaints, about a series of advertisements featuring a man with a large brass horn in his trousers,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>
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 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'".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Related products
Template:More citations needed Golden Wonder introduced a similar convenience food "Pot Rice" at the beginning of the 1980s. Pot Rice was made from dehydrated rice, wheat protein, vegetables, and flavourings, sold in a plastic pot. Pot Rice was later manufactured by Unilever 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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 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, and was available for some time in the 1990s. However, in 2017, Pot Pasta was relaunched, with the sachets removed. "Pot Sweet" was a dessert range available in four varieties, introduced in the mid-1980s, and discontinued shortly afterwards.<ref>Template:CitationTemplate:CbignoreTemplate:Dead Youtube links</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
Template:Portal Template:Div col
- Ramen
- List of instant noodle brands
- Indomie
- Maggi instant noodles
- Nissin Foods
- Sapporo Ichiban
- Shin Ramyun
- Super Noodles
- Wai Wai (food brand)