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Inventor of Ramen Noodles Dies
College students around the world are in mourning
Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant ramen and founder and chairman of Nissin Food Products Co. in Osaka, died of a heart attack on Jan. 5. He was 96.

Ando, also chairman of the Japan Convenience Foods Industry Association, is widely regarded as having affected the nation's food culture.

On Jan. 4, Ando made a speech at a ceremony marking the company's first workday of the year. He then went home to rest, as he had a high fever. He was taken to a hospital in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, on Friday afternoon, but at that point, he was already in cardiorespiratory arrest.

Born in Taiwan, Ando established a seafood company in 1948. Ten years later, Ando invented the world's first instant ramen product that could be prepared just by adding hot water, in a workshop at his home in Ikeda. At the end of 1958, he changed the company's name to its current moniker. Before long, Nissin's Chicken Ramen had become a great success.

In 1971, the company began selling Cup Noodle. Ando made Cup Noodle a worldwide hit by exporting to the United States, European and other Asian nations.

Ando also established the association and became its director in 1964 to maintain order in the industry, as many other companies had violated Nissin's patents after the success of Chicken Ramen.
Posted by: Free Radical 2007-01-07
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=177137