Biz people: Instant noodle inventor dies
Japan bade farewell to Momofuku Ando (right), known as the inventor of instant noodles that have become a global household product, after he died aged 96.
Ando died of acute heart failure on Friday, said Nissin Food Products Co, the company he founded in 1948 in the aftermath of World War II and built into a multi-billion dollar empire.
Japanese newspapers published lengthy obituaries of the businessman on Saturday with the influential daily Asahi Shimbun praising him for bringing "instant noodles to the world and into space".
The mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said Ando started from scratch in developing an instant noodle which has "grown with the age of mass consumption" and added "a new chapter in the history of the world's food culture".
In his biography, Ando said he was inspired to develop the product when he saw a long line of people waiting to buy a noodle soup at a black market stall in a war-ravaged Japanese city.
"Peace prevails when food suffices," he said.
(China Daily 01/09/2007 page16)
