Momofuku Ando’s Ramen Revolution
By Kelli Luu | 14 Oct, 2025

One man’s persistence led to the popularization of a global food sensation.

Billions of servings are eaten every year all over the world as late night cravings or during finals week when there’s no time to cook. Let’s take a look at how instant noodles became one of the greatest food inventions of all time. 

Momofuku Ando is the founder of Nissin Food Products Co. and the inventor of the very first prepackaged instant noodles. Born into a wealthy Taiwanese family, Ando followed their entrepreneurial footsteps, opening his own textile company. He later moved to Osaka to expand his business and study economics at Ritsumeikan University. 

During World War II, Ando’s businesses thrived, but in 1948, he was given a two year prison sentence for handing out scholarships to students, which counted as tax evasion in Japan at the time. After his sentence, he had lost all of his textile businesses to bankruptcy and he ended up founding Nissin where he began to produce salt. 

When World War II ended, Japan faced major food shortages and the Ministry of Health encouraged people to eat bread made of wheat flour. Confused as to why bread was being recommended when noodles were much more familiar to the Japanese people, Ando figured this was his opportunity to come up with something new. 

After experimenting for months, Ando finally released the very first package of instant noodles called Chikin Ramen and it became a huge hit. This led Ando to the invention of Cup Noodles in 1971 when he was 61 years old. 

Cup Noodles were an international hit and over time, Ando was able to observe the different ways people were enjoying Cup Noodles. He upgraded to a styrofoam cup to help keep the noodles warm and once production costs went down, business boomed. 

By 2009 98 billion servings of Cup Noodles were in demand worldwide, and today that number has exceeded 100 billion every year. The brand has developed more flavors like Thai tom yum and Korean stir fry, keeping customers from every continent happy. 

There are two Cup Noodle museums in Japan dedicated to instant noodles as well as Nissin’s founder where you can customize your own cup and flavors. Momofuku Ando passed away from heart failure in 2007 at the age of 96 but he lived long enough to see his invention revolutionize the world.