Cup Noodles to Be Banned at Schools
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Instant cup noodle, one of Koreans' most favored foods, will no longer be welcome on school campuses as the government gears up to ban 90 percent of the foodstuff.
According to the Korea Food and Drug Administration's new rules on child nutrition, from March school cafeterias will be prohibited from selling snacks that contain more than 250 kilocalories, 4 grams of saturated fat, or 17 grams of sugar per serving.
It will also ban any single item that contains an excessive amount of sodium, more than 500 kilocalories and 4 grams of saturated fat. They will be classified as ``high fat, less nutritious foods.''
About 90 percent of cup noodle brands, which many people use as a ``substitute'' for regular meals, will be subject to the regulation. Similarly, 65 percent of soda drinks, 37 percent of chocolate varieties and 22 percent of snacks and ice cream will also be put on the banned list.
The same products will be banned from commercials that air during children's prime time television viewing.
Snack makers complained when the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs first came up with the idea. The initial plan was to ban foods containing a sodium level of over 600 milligrams, but it was deemed that too many snacks fell under its radar and the regulations loosened.
``The plan may come as an attack to some snack makers but they seem to be taking it fairly well,'' KFDA spokesman Kang Ki-hu said.
The government's measures come as obesity among children have nearly doubled in the past eight years. The level marked 5.8 percent in 1997 among people between aged between two and 19, but jumped to 9.7 percent in 2005.
Its socioeconomic cost is thought to be 1.9 trillion won. Dining out or buying ready-made foods without knowing the contents was cited as a major contributor to the increase.
That led the KFDA to ask restaurants and caterers to notify consumers of the nutritional value of their foods.
Research aimed at reducing sodium intake, which it is hoped can help construct healthy and balanced menus starts this year, Kang added.