Instant noodle fans beware! Just one single pack of instant noodles is enough to exceed your daily intake limit for sodium.
This means that any further sodium present in other foods in your diet will add to your daily sodium load, posing risk to your health.
In a joint project between the Consumer Council and the Centre for Food Safety (CFS), a total of 48 instant noodles were scrutinized for their sodium and fat contents based on the nutrition labels.
This is the first of a series of studies as part of an ongoing campaign to heighten consumer awareness and understanding of nutrition labelling of prepackaged food products.
Out of the 48 samples, 13 instant noodles were found to contain sodium in each package in excess of the WHO/FAO's daily intake limit of less than 2,000mg (about 1 level teaspoon of salt).
The 13 samples were distributed almost evenly between cup noodles (7) and the bag type instant noodles (6).
In general, instant noodles were relatively high in sodium content. The sample with the highest sodium content was a 75g cup noodles containing a high 4,350mg sodium which is more than double the daily intake limit.
Since most sodium in instant noodles comes from the soup base, consumers are advised to limit the use of the seasoning provided, and drink less of the soup.
In addition to sodium content, the samples were studied for their contents of total fat and saturated fat as the production of instant noodles often involves the deep-frying process.
The total fat content of some cup noodles were found to be comparatively high. 3 cup noodle samples had more than 30g total fat (about 2 tablespoon of oil) per package, which is more than 50% of the WHO/FAO's daily intake limit of total fat of a 2,000kcal diet.
On saturated fat, 9 samples (5 cups, 3 bag and 1 sauce-mixing types) had 10g or more per package, which is equal to or more than 50% of the daily intake limit of saturated fat of a 2,000kcal diet.
9 of the samples bore "Non-Fried" or similar wording on their package, their total fat and saturated fat contents were found to range from 0g to 9g and 0g to 4g per 100g respectively, both comparatively lower than those samples without such wording.
Consumers should be wary that eating too much sodium increases the risk of developing high blood pressure while too much total fat is linked to increased risk of overweight/obesity and saturated fat to heart disease.
Therefore, it pays to read the nutrition labels for a healthier choice.
The new Nutrition Labelling Scheme will come into force on July 1 this year. It requires all applicable prepackaged food products to provide nutrition labels with contents of energy plus 7 specified nutrients, namely protein, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, carbohydrates, sugars and sodium.
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