Can You Eat Ramen Raw? The Facts About Eating Raw Noodles

Last Updated on 2021-06-12 , 2:27 pm

We all LOVE instant noodles, or commonly known as ramen outside of Singapore. The yellow thing kept us alive during school, and kept us full during our working days. But can you eat ramen raw?

But before delving into the facts, here’s a “health warning”: instant noodles aren’t exactly BFF with health freaks. Here, check out a video we’re done on instant noodles (the sodium content is going to shock you)

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Well, if you’ve watched the video in its entirety, you’ll know the facts about eating raw ramen noodles; if you’re a bookworm and prefer to read, here goes.

Can You Eat Ramen Raw?

Many of us would have heard of this before from our parents or grandparents: you must always cook your instant noodles, if not you’ll get diarrhea or die from eating it “raw”.

Okay, maybe it being fatal is a little exaggerated, but you get the idea.

When I was in the army going through my basic military training, the instructors were adamant about us having to cook our instant noodles before we eat them: anyone breaking the rules, according to him, would be punished.

It further made me believe that uncooked instant noodles aren’t healthy and eating them would have serious consequences.

But here’re the facts: yes, while it tastes relatively weird, it’s perfectly fine to eat it uncooked.

The reason is that instant noodles are essentially already cooked before packaging: you’re therefore just having it in a different way when you down it without boiling it.

Here’s a video showing the production of instant noodles, from raw materials to its packaged form:

Notice that it’s already cooked? So calling it “uncooked” is technically incorrect, but anyways.

Some people said that they’ll have diarrhea after eating it uncooked, but hey: don’t we all sometimes have diarrhea after downing a plate of laksa?

On Nissin Food’s website, they even have a FAQ catered to this. Here’s the question and answer.

Is it safe to eat the Top Ramen noodles without putting them in boiling water first?
Some people have found that they enjoy Top Ramen as a snack, much like potato chips. The noodles are broken up and eaten straight from the package or sprinkled on top of salads. Since the noodles are already cooked, it is totally safe to eat this way.

A few of us, usually the guys, have makan-ed it uncooked as well during NS, as soldiering has taught us to eat anything except humans. So far, everyone’s still alive, and we don’t remember having diarrhea after that (trust me, we’ll definitely remember if we’ve diarrhea during outfield).

But of course, all we can say is this: Cook the damn noodles. It just takes three minutes and you’ll have something nice instead of some raw biscuit-tasting food.

And oh, did you know that instant noodles manufacturers have deliberately ensured that cooking takes three minutes for a reason that only benefits them? There, told you to watch the video liao.

Read Also:

• 10 Facts About Instant Noodles, The Food That Has Saved Many Lives in S’pore
• Harvard Study Shows That Instant Noodles Are Worse for Women Than Men

Featured Image: NIPAPORN PANYACHAROEN / Shutterstock.com