Food experts said fried instant noodles are as safe as unfried instant noodles.

The concerns over the safety of fried instant noodles were triggered by a promotion by Sichuan Baijia Food Co Ltd, a China Central Television program reported on Tuesday.

The promotion was in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, and it encouraged consumers to stop buying fried instant noodles, claiming the food was harmful to your health.

Baijia said a chemical called acrylamide, which may cause cancer, forms during the production of fried instant noodles.

The company let consumers exchange a pack of fried instant noodles for two packs of its products and discarded the fried instant noodles into garbage bins.

Sheng Jiawu, vice president of the company, said fried instant noodles producers should stop expanding market share until the issue is resolved.

Oodles of noodles

Nearly 10,000 packs of fried instant noodles of various brands were thrown out during the promotion. The company said it will destroy the noodles and hold the promotion in another 20 cities.

It also plans to collect the signature of 1 million consumers.

However, food experts said there is nothing wrong with fried instant noodles.

Hu Xiaosong, a professor of the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University, said the amount of acrylamide contained in fried instant noodles is very low, even lower than in unfried instant noodles.

Hu tested 14 types of fried and unfried instant noodles, and found the average amount of acrylamide in unfried instant noodles was higher than that in fried instant noodles. The data collected from the United States, Europe, Japan and the Ministry of Health also prove his test results, CCTV quoted Hu as saying.

Hu has studied acrylamide levels in food since 2002.

Shen Qun, an associate professor of the college, said Baijia garbled her research results.

Baijia cited some data from Shen's research results as an evidence.

"The company quoted only the data they wanted," CCTV quoted Shen as saying. "They quoted me out of context and made that horrifying announcement."

In her research, she found that fried instant noodles contain the least amount of acrylamide among food made from potatoes and pastries.

Dong Jingsheng, deputy secretary-general of the China Consumers' Association, said Baijia released false information about its rival, which is not a good business practice.

An average Chinese person consumes 34 packs of instant noodles each year, fourth most in the world according to CCTV.

(Shanghai Daily July 6, 2006)