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Maggi 2 Minute Noodles | Chewsday Review

I’m doing some ‘hot topic’ Chewsday Reviews at the moment! Today’s review features Maggi 2 minute noodles. This is the wholegrain version, because that’s the one I buy. But I must confess, I’ve never actually looked at the nutrition info!

Ingredients

Noodle Cake: Wheat Flour, Wholemeal Flour (10%), Tapioca Starch, Water, Mineral Salts (508, 451, 501, 500, 452), Vegetable Oil (Antioxidant (320)), Salt, Stabilisers (405, 415, 466), Vegetable Gum (412). Flavour Mix Sachet: Iodised Salt, Flavour Enhancers (621, 635), Mineral Salt (508), Maltodextrin, Flavours, Sugar, Onion Powder, Vegetable Fat (Antioxidant (320)), Parsley Flakes, Colours (Turmeric, Caramel III), Spices (Coriander, Cumin, Cardamom, Chilli Powder, Ginger).
Mineral salts 508, 451, 501, 500, 452 are mostly for flavour and stability. 508 is potassium chloride and can aggravate food intolerances in susceptible people, 451 is a triphosphate and can be linked to kidney stones in susceptible people, 501 is potassium carbonate and has no known adverse effects, 500 is sodium hydrogen carbonate and has no adverse effects in small quantities, 452 is potassium polyphosphate which is linked to kidney stones in susceptible people.
Antioxidant 320 is Butylated hydroxyanisole which can aggravate food intolerances.
Stabiliser 405 is Propylene glycol alginate, 415 is anthem gum and 466 is cellulose gum- all safe. 412 is guar gum and commonly tolerated.
621 is MSG and a known trigger for many people. 635 is Disodium 5′-ribonucleotides and also used as a flavour enhancer and can trigger reactions for some people. The only ones I’m concerned about are 621 and 635, which are both in the flavouring.
Common allergens: Wheat and Soy. May Contain Crustacea, Fish, Milk and Mustard.

Positives

Negatives

There’s a lot of ‘numbers’ in the ingredient list. I don’t believe that we should be scared of numbers because not all additives are ‘nasty’. Obviously if you or your child has difficulty tolerating any then avoid them. But if we didn’t use additives we wouldn’t be able to keep food in the pantry for very long before it spoiled. I’m not a fan of the MSG inclusion though. Compared to pasta, which has only one ingredient, I tend to feel more comfortable choosing pasta over these noodles.
The figures don’t look too bad when you see it as ‘100g prepared noodles’ but if you were to eat a whole packet (which is one serving size) the salt content is huge. It works out to 935mg which is more than a toddler’s recommended DAILY intake. As a comparison, normal pasta is 90mg of sodium.

Marketing

Alternatives

The 2 min noodles aren’t the most nutritious food out there. For convenience I’d suggest using angel hair pasta instead (also cooks in 2 mins and has slightly more fibre and less salt) or something like rice noodles.
However, if these noodles are a hit in your family then I’d suggest either omitting the flavour sachet, or just using a teeny sprinkle of it. Then think about ways you can add more nutritious ingredients like peas and corn, an egg scrambled into the hot noodles, some bbq chicken etc. Choose the wholegrain option too!