TASTE OF TOMORROW (The clever science behind frozen ramen)

Instant ramen might be a hunger beater, but they are little like the real thing. However, food scientists can make them much more like restaurant noodles with one new step – freezing.

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A noodle is a delicate thing. Shinji Sasaki would be the first to tell you. Too porous, and it will get soggy. Too dense, and it won't cook evenly. Behind all the noodles you toss into a boiling pot of water, there's probably a team of food scientists like him, employed by the manufacturer to calculate the precise ingredients and chemistry required to achieve the desired effect.

And Sasaki has another tricky layer or two to work with: as a food scientist at Ajinomoto Foods, he is one of the people behind an unusual processed food that can be found lining grocery freezer shelves. These are frozen ramen bowls, ready for the office microwave. When noodles have to be cooked, frozen, and then microwaved, the bar is set very high for the scientists hoping to make a quick ramen lunch palatable.

Instant ramen, of course, has a beloved place in many hearts. The comforting bounce of noodles that have been fried and dried and rehydrated, the bite of the salty soup packets, the swift transformation from brittle puck to savory snack – what's not to like? It doesn't have very much in common with ramen made fresh in a shop, though. And as American palates learned what these noodles could be like in recent years, following a groundswell of ramen shop openings, the company began to ponder producing something closer to the fresh version, recounts Taro Komura, an executive vice president at Ajinomoto Foods North America.

Ajinomoto, by the way, was founded in 1908 by a Japanese chemist who discovered certain molecules behind the flavour called umami and gave it its name – he started the company to sell monosodium glutamate, a tasty new seasoning.