The Instant Noodle Mystery

Hi everyone. Hope you're all doing well. I have a question about instant noodles. First, allow me to start by saying that I now realise that they are to be avoided if you are trying to maintain a calorie controlled diet. But, I am mystified about how they outline their nutritional information on the packaging of several different common brands. So, an 85g pack of Koka dried noodles gives a reading of 81 kcal under the heading of 'per 100g as prepared' and then next to that, in a separate column it shows a reading of 393 kcal under the heading of 'per portion'. There is a notation immediately above this chart that says 'Serving size (one pack) and, As prepared 485g' ??????

Newgate Noodles are even more confusing dealing with 'half pack' values that go through the roof.

How can anyone make sense of this? I have been giving these to my daughter for years as an afternoon lunch/snack because I just assumed that the lower calorific values shown were the accurate ones as the others seemed so enormous and all because you add boiling water? I am not at all convinced by any suggestion that the addition of water allows the noodles to release oils and fats because even if it does, the oils and fats still have to be in the dried product and therefore accounted for in the calories shown. I would truly love someone to shed light on this subject as the internet is not giving any answers. Someone put me out of my misery BTW I have tried to add images to help make things clearer but can't get my head round the HTML so if anyone could tell me how to insert an image it would be great. Thanks again.

Basically, one whole package cooked with water is going to be 485 grams, and the 4.85 time 81 for a total of 393 kcal per package. I understand that these instant noodles are made by deep-frying wheat noodles and that there is a lot of oil in them that doesn't get released but adds to the calories. That is why they are so yummy!

You have to be very careful with prepackaged food. The calories are usually listed per serving, and 1 package can contain odd number of servings. In this case 4.85. It is very seldom that 1 package = 1 serving = calories on the package that you don’t need to multiply by some number. Also keep in mind that if a serving has less than 5 calories, it can be labeled as 0 calories. So you can eat 10 servings of something that is labeled as 0 calorie (sweetener or condiment, etc) and consume 50 calories instead of 0.

For those with insomnia can recommend reading FDA guidelines for food labeling. Not sure you will be able to read the whole code, but some pretty interesting information there.

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=101.9

I think just read the nutritional fact table in the packages.. take attention to the "calories per serving" and "serving per package". If it contain more than one serving, it means you should to multiplying it. Don't surpised, because instan noodles have calories around 300-400kkal for 80-90gr dried, 400-500kkal for >90gr dried. The calories come from the noodles and the seasoning sauce/oil. Just make sure to reduce the intake.