Dump the Slag of All Snacks (Pot Noodle)

Member Name: alocin

Product:	Pot Noodle
Date:	10/04/03 (1808 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick, Hot Snack

Disadvantages: Tastes Awful, Nutritional Cardboard

Here is some information that, if you are not a student, will shock and disgust you. Pot Noodles control 95% of the £105 million instant hot snack market. That's right over £95 million is spent on Pot Noodles in this country every year. And they say food standards are slipping!

The Slag of Snacks

If you appreciate good food, don't call rehydrating a pot of instant noodles cooking or were a student before the 1970's then maybe you have not tried a Pot Noodle. They were launched in 1979 and have provided young people who cannot cook sustinance ever since. A Pot Noodle consists of a plastic pot of noodles along with what looks like sand collected off of a particulaly messy beach. It is in actual fact flavourings, along with the odd bit of dried carrot, mushroom, pepper or "texturised soya pieces" - pretend meat. They come in several flavours including Chicken and Mushroom, Beef and Tomato, Bombay Bad Boy and
Pizza.

I can only see one possible reason for Pot Noodles popularity - how easy they are to make. You simply boil a kettle, pour hot water into the pot up to the arrow on the side, stir and wait two minutes. You then add the "flavour sachet" of sauce that is included, stir again and wait a further two minutes. Voila - seemingly a hot, tastey snack in minutes with the minimum of effort. There is only one way to go wrong - not stiring enough. You are then left with congealed sauce and powder at the bottom of the pot that tastes disgusting. Not waiting the full time for it to rehydrate also has this effect and leaves you with crunchy noodles.

To young people brought up on processed, flavourless food then maybe Pot Noodle tastes a bit like it's flavour suggests. I am young myself but I say they taste bland and cardboardy. Bombay Bad Boy is very, very hot but it still does not have much flavour. The smell given off by a Pot Noodle is closer to it's flavour but is also disgusting - it hangs
around seemingly for ever putting other people off eating! Pot Noodles also have very little nutritional value - they are fairly high in calories and fat but do not fill you up. You have one as a meal and will want something else after a while! I have included what they say on the side of the pot below.

Nutritional Information per pot

Energy 389Kcal
Protein 10.8 g
Carbohydrate 54.2 g
of which sugars 5.3 g
Fat 14.3 g
of which saturates 6.9 g
Fibre 2.7 g
Sodium 1.6 g

contents per pot = 89g or 300g including water.

Despite the lack of taste people, particulaly students, still buy them. One major benefit to students is that they produce no washing up (don't you know we're allergic?) except the fork or spoon used to eat them. I think this is one of the main reasons students eat them! It is not like Pot Noodles are that cheap either - around 70p - 99p depending on the size of pot and shop you buy it in. Supermarket own versions are much cheaper! I suppose they aren't advertised as the "Slag of all snacks" though - not as cool.

Pot Noodles do have a place in a balanced diet, somewhere, possibly far away at the back of the cupboard. They do provide a quick hot snack for people whose cooking skills are not well honed, but admit it they taste awful and are not good for you! Students of the UK try making scrambled egg, or a tuna salad or something. Escape from the slimy noodles and learn to cook! Dump that Slag of Snacks!

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