Samyang returns to roots with revival of Korea’s 1st instant noodle recipe

Samyang Foods Vice Chairman Kim Jung-soo poses with an enlarged model of a Samyang 1963 instant noodles packet during a press conference in Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of Samyang Foods.

Samyang Foods on Monday launched a new instant noodle that ambitiously revives the key recipe of the company’s — and Korea’s — first ramyeon product, Samyang Ramen, which used beef tallow — the same ingredient that once caused its sales to plummet due to unproven rumors and public backlash in 1989.

The company’s Vice Chairman Kim Jung-soo said the introduction of the new product, Samyang 1963, is not just another product launch, but a symbolic return to the philosophy of late honorary Chairman Chun Joong-yoon. Chun, who founded the company in 1961 and was Kim’s father-in-law, aimed to provide affordable instant noodles to Koreans amid widespread poverty.

Samyang 1963, launched amid a global craze for the company’s Buldak noodles, uses beef tallow to deep-fry the noodles and to make a liquid soup base, which adds what the company described as a “deep, beefy taste” to the broth.

The launch comes exactly 36 years after a lawsuit was filed against Samyang Foods for allegedly using a “non-edible” ingredient. Sparked by an anonymous tip to the police, the unfounded rumor claimed that major instant noodles producers, including Samyang, had secretly used industrial-grade beef tallow in their products while concealing the practice from the public.

Kim described Samyang 1963 as a “bold, shameless return to the ingredient Samyang used from the beginning to feed hungry people nationwide.”

“The beef tallow incident brought unimaginably hard times for us. The rumor dropped our domestic market share below 20 percent and forced us to shut down facilities and lay off more than 1,000 employees. Although beef tallow posed no health risks, the rumor’s impact was so severe that we had to replace it with palm kernel oil, which most ramyeon companies have used ever since,” Kim said during a press conference in Seoul’s Namdaemun area.

The late Samyang Foods founder and honorary Chairman Chun Joong-yoon, with Samyang Ramen, inset, which he launched in 1963 / Korea Times file

Namdaemun is where the late Chun — then president of Dongbang Life Insurance, later renamed Samsung Life Insurance — first witnessed a long line of people waiting to buy cheap, poor-quality porridge in 1961. The scene inspired him to establish Samyang Foods to manufacture instant noodles and provide affordable meals to low-income consumers.

“I feel that the launch of Samyang 1963 could serve as consolation to my father-in-law, who suffered because of the rumormongers and irresponsible media outlets that amplified their voices,” Kim added, pausing several times as she became emotional.

Samyang Foods CEO Kim Dong-chan, who also attended the press conference, said that officials from other food companies at the time knew the rumors were false but were unable to publicly refute them due to the lack of media channels and the absence of social networking platforms.

“Samyang workers back then were despondent under the weight of the rumor. My goal now is not to set the record straight or clear up the company’s past burdens. I simply want to return to the company’s legacy and continue putting our founding philosophy into practice,” he said.

Samyang 1963 uses a mixture of beef tallow and palm kernel oil to deep-fry the noodles in each packet, creating a creamy, beef-flavored broth when cooked. The premium instant noodle hit domestic store shelves on Monday, though export plans remain undecided.

“In 1963, when poverty was part of everyday life, the late Chairman Chun said that what people needed was not insurance but a warm meal. That was the starting point of Samyang Foods. Now, we are returning to that beginning — to the ingredient that represents Samyang’s heart and soul,” Kim said.