China's National Grain and Oil Standardization Commission has issued a national standard for instant noodles.
The new standard, for the first time, states the protein content of instant noodles to ensure the nutritional value of the food. The standard says that protein must account for no less than 8% of the contents and any food additives must be marked on the packaging.
The standard says that the upper limit of fat for fried instant noodles cooked in water and instant noodles cooked by frying should be 22% and 25%, respectively. With respect to labels, the new standard asks that nutrition elements on the package of instant noodles conform to the Food Nutrition Lable Management Criteria issued by the Ministry of Health.
The new standard says that the use of additives in instant noodles should follow the GB2760 Food Additive Sanitation Standard and the use of nutrition enhancers must conform with the GB14880 Food Nutrition Enhancer Sanitation Standard.
In addition, the new standard has added more indices for the inspection of instant noodles, including net weight, consistency, moisture, rehydration time, pH, and peroxide value.
Statistic shows that China produced a total 48.9 billion bags of instant noodles in 2007, with a value of CNY35.7 billion.
