I’ve seen a few articles as of late about people burning themselves because they tip over cups of instant noodles. This is ridiculous. These articles start citing that the design of these cup is flawed. Also, it is mentioned that many of the victims are children! I think anyone saying “here little tyke, be careful, it’s hot” ought to have their heads examined. . If you don’t know how to correctly operate and consume a cup noodle, I will herein inform you as to how.
The first rule of the cup noodle is follow the directions. Most people don’t read directions when making a cup noodle, but most of them have them. Nowhere does it say to fill it with water then put it in the microwave for a few minutes; in fact, there are little icons warning against doing exactly that. Microwaving cup noodles can cause super-heating of the contents as well as can release chemicals from the foam. Note, the cups are made from foam, not Styrofoam which is a trademarked material.
Most cup noodles direct you to heat water in a separate container in the microwave and then pour it in and close the lid. Is there a difference in the taste? Sure! Would you microwave spaghetti noodles and expect them to taste good? Of course not; you’d do what it says on the packaging.
Now for the tipping issue. I’ve had a lot of instant noodles in my day. Bowls, bags, cups, big bowls and king cups. Have I ever tipped one over? No. Have I ever knocked one over? Yes. Something tipping over on its own and being knocked over by me are two distinctly different things altogether. It isn’t a design flaw. I had a stage when I was in my teem years when I would knock over everything that had liquid in it on myself. At McDonald’s I knocked a large Coke on myself. At a pizza joint, I knocked a banana malt all over my shorts. Was it lame? Yes. Was it my fault? Sure was. Was it the fault of the design of the beverage receptacle? Not really. How could it be?
The flaw, especially when it comes to kids getting burned, is the parent letting them get burned. Come on, parent – don’t be a lazy hooplehead!
I am willing to take all responsibility for my own actions and as of this moment, openly apologize to myself for all accidents involving cup noodles that get knocked or ‘tipped’ over by me in times previous and future. I’ve never heard anyone complain about those long-neck beer bottles being elbowed – granted they don’t contain hot liquid, but they’re easily knocked over.
In closing, read the directions and while the noodles steep, let them sit in a safe place. Watch yourself and be careful! Contents may be hot.
Lol so the noodles just jumped right at ya! Haha I once cooked a cup of noodles set it down on the counter and they didn’t move…what sorcery did you use to get those noodles to jump? 🔮🍜😱😫😥☠️
I just brought my 9-year-old home from a week in the hospital. I did follow the instructions. I did not use the microwave. I waited 4 minutes instead of the 3 minutes suggested on the package and he still accidentally tipped it over and suffered 2nd degree burns over most of his thighs and crotch.
If you are sure that noodles aren’t dangerous, why don’t you *follow the instruction” and then pour the soup on your lap so that you can see that these are dangerous.
The hospital told me that they had 3 other burn victims that week from the same thing. So this is not as rare as you would think. STOP encouraging people to take lightly of this danger, you just shouldn’t feed this stuff to children at all since the manufacturer won’t bother to provide safer heating instructions.
Dannie –
That’s horrible and I hope your kiddos doing better. However, I don’t exactly understand what the manufacturer is supposed to do. Accidents happen. The cup didn’t tip itself over. Should we ban playground equipment because there it the chance of falling and breaking one’s neck? My thought is that if you are worried about serving hot noodles, you could put it in a bowl instead of serving in an insulated foam cup. I remember being accident prone at 9 – I spilt a big soda at McDonald’s all over myself – I believe in the same year I spilled a banana malt all over myself too. Regarding the safe handling regarding children, I think that they do put something on them now mentioning using extra precaution when it comes to children. I’m really sorry to hear this happened and feel for you, but I don’t know exactly what you want the companies to do. Again, hope your kid is doing better – it must have been horrible.
– TRR
There is now some woman *suing* one of the companies (I can’t remember which one) because her daughter sat one on the table, didn’t see (?!) her little brother, who’s a toddler, there and the kid knocked it over on himself.
[…] 8/31/2012 – UPDATE – Thanks to everyone checking out this article and for the nice words! Thought I’d also mention I have an article about cup noodle rumors you might like – check it out HERE. […]
I find this VERY offensive and MAYBE you should get your facts in line before writing on a website! I am currently recovering from second and third degree burns on both of my legs from the Shrimp Cup of Noodles. I am NOT a child…..I DID NOT heat the foam cup…..I have cooked this MANY times! When this product tipped over on me and landed on my legs…..I was severely burned! When I went to Urgent Care….the doctor informed me that is very common! As a matter of fact…..my friend’s college age son spent 5 months recovering from the burns he received! My advice…..before you start calling people names….you should get your facts straight! I cannot say if there is a “flaw” in the cup…..but maybe cases like this should be taken more seriously since it does seem to be common. If you would like to see pictures of my burns and the blisters I have or the bills from my urgent care visit……I would be glad to show you! I have about a weeks recovery before I am even able to wear pants….and another piece of information….I was wearing cotton pants when this happened…..thank God or else I would be suffering from worse.
Unless it has happened to you…..I would refrain on giving advice to anyone!
I didn’t know that noodle cups had a mind of their own and would tip themselves over. I’m sure you had absolutely nothing to do with it.
See: User Error
– TRR
I didn’t know that some people are big enough dorks to open a website about noodle cups either…..so I guess we both learned something. Pretty lame to criticize someone who was physically hurt….especially the nice things that were said about children & their parents. That shows alot of class….keep up the good work….I am sure you are getting paid well….because really who would open a site about noodles for free?
I guess the whole ‘being responsible for your actions’ thing is lost on you. Hope you don’t end up with a spoon full of ice cream and get a tragic ice cream headache.
Good luck to you and please feel free to not reply.
– TRR
Remember the cat in the microwave story?…
amen. i personally rarely eat cup of noodles, but when i do, i choose to not microwave the foam >.> seriously that’s like putting water in your ramen packaging and then popping it in the microwave. i must say that i rarely stovetop cook my noodles for ramen, but i get burned… i dont blame my burns on a design flaw in Fiestaware bowls…
This is like the mcdonalds lady who sued over the spilled hot coffee and won.
It’s totally different, coffee is supposed to be drinkable, not scalding hot near the boiling point… Yes, it is her fault that she spilled it on herself, but there is absolutely no reasonable expectation that spilling coffee on yourself would cause 3rd degree burns… If she hadn’t had spilled it on herself, she would have had much more damage done to herself by drinking it, would have burned her whole mouth apart… If someone offers for you to take a dip in their jaccuzi, do you have an expectation of the water being 190 degrees?
As far as coffee, my mom likes to drink coffee that’s extremely hot – don’t ask me how she does it, but scalding hot coffee is her thing. Then again, she is the one who prepares it. Caution: Contents Are Hot is printed on anything like that and the only reason it seems to be is because people don’t think.
Arguing that a jacuzzi would be that hot is kind of silly since people don’t expect to bathe in coffee or noodles. Go to Starbucks and buy a latte and pour it on yourself – that’d burn like crazy!@ Sa,me would happen with a cup noodle.
It’s just a matter of common sense and I don’t understand why people just don’t use it and act responsibly; I guess I’m an ideologue when it comes to common sense…
– TRR
Actually the 70yr old woman spent over a month in the hospital getting reconstructive surgery on her vagina. Most of it in a medically induced coma bc of the severity of the burn.