By Luke Simmons and Mark Peter Notaras
Photo credits to Luke Simmons

People all around the world love to eat instant noodles, and Timor-Leste is no exception. Wherever you travel in this beautiful mountainous country you can invariably find a small kiosk selling cups of instant noodles to weary travellers.

Instant noodles might make a cheap and convenient snack, but their nutritional benefits are very questionable. Instant noodles are usually high in carbohydrates, fat and salt, but low in protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals. A recent study found that consumption of instant noodles more than twice per week was associated with increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome in women, independent of other major dietary patterns.ⁱ

Instant noodles were invented in Japan by Momofuku Ando of Nissin Foods. He launched the first instant noodles in 1958 and the first cup noodles in 1971. Today instant noodles can be found just about everywhere; they are even used as currency in prisons. In fact, instant noodles are so popular that last year around 100 billion servings were consumed globallyⁱⁱ.

The three basic ingredients of instant noodles are wheat flour, water and salt. That doesn't sound too bad so far, as long as you are not gluten intolerant and don’t have high blood pressure. However, very few instant noodles just contain these three ingredients. They often contain a long list of ingredients including various starches and thickeners, palm oil, monosodium glutamate (MSG), preservatives, synthetic flavours and colourings, and a petroleum derived antioxidant called tertiary-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ). This chemical prevents oxidation of fats and oils to extend the shelf life of processed foods. The more you look at the back of a packet, then the less appetizing instant noodles start to look!

In Timor-Leste, instant noodles and other imported junk foods are rapidly replacing the traditional nutritious local diet rich in grains, beans, vegetables, fruit and wild foods. Instant noodles are particularly attractive to young people, bombarded with advertising on television and at kiosks, who are drawn to these so called modern convenience foods. However, this dietary trend is harming people’s health and costing the country a lot of money for food imports.

TLFIX is an interactive platform for Timorese food innovators to increase their use and promotion of nutritious, local Timorese ingredients and cuisine. As written about previously on DFAT's Innovation Exchange (iXc) blog, "Things Change Quickly in Timor" and the experiment to come up with a healthy noodle alternative is no exception. Thanks to the flexible support of the iXc model which enabled Timorese food innovators to focus on certain foods that communities are used to and demanding, TLFIX is attempting to disrupt these unhealthy noodle trends. Demand-driven experimentation has led to the creation of delicious and nutritious instant noodles which use local ingredients and do not contain any artificial ingredients.

Enter Mie Marungi or 'moringa noodles'...

Marungi as it is known in Timor-Leste (also moringa or drumstick tree), is a small tropical tree with many wonderful nutritional benefits. It is said that all parts of the tree are useful, but people mainly eat the long green pods and the leaves, both of which are very nutritious. Marungi leaf powder is an excellent source of protein, potassium, vitamin A, calcium and iron.

In 2019 the TLFIX team – a part of the Agora Food Studio (Agora) social enterprise – worked with a coalition of nutrition trainers from across Timor-Leste to create and promote healthy moringa noodles for local consumption. Fortunately, one local organisation in Hiam Health – a Timorese NGO working to promote better nutrition – are producing and now selling Marungi powder. Hiam brought the marungi powder to an exchange at Agora held in August 2019 and this was experimented with to create a healthy noodle made from a sustainable, locally grown plant. Exchange participants also incorporated other nutritious local vegetables like pumpkin and purple sweet potato to create a trio of colourful, healthy and delicious noodles.

These noodles are much lower in fat and salt than commercial instant noodles, and contain no palm oil, MSG, TBHQ, artificial flavours, colours or preservatives. Best of all, these noodles are nutritious. We have calculated that a single 100g serving of Marungi noodles contains:

51g of carbohydrates, 8.3g of protein, 2.4g of dietary fibre and only 1.4g of fat;
20% of your recommended daily intake of Vitamin B1;
26% of your recommended daily intake of B2;
24% of your recommended daily intake of Vitamin A;
10% of your recommended daily intake of Iron; and
8% of your recommended daily intake of Calcium.

In 2019 the marungi noodles featured regularly on the Agora menu and were deliciously combined with local fish and vegetable options to complete a nourishing meal. The noodles can also be air-dried, sustainably packaged and continue to be sold to customers to take away and cook at home. The TLFIX team are exploring ways to expand production of the noodles and hence reach a wider market. TLFIX and the World Food Program (WFP) have also met and agreed to explore avenues to further develop the healthy noodles for broader consumption, such as in school feeding programs.

“Now that I have visited TLFIX and seen and tasted the amazing food that the participants produced together, I have a much better understanding of how a food innovation exchange can work. I can see potential for incorporating these local noodles into the school feeding programs that we support.”
Dr. Liu Dageng – WFP Country Representative in Timor-Leste:

Then in December 2019, three Agora food innovators – Julio Da Cunha, Paula Torres and Alda Bakhita took the moringa noodles concept to the UNDP Asia-Pacific Youth Co: Lab Initiative. From a pool of more than 25 Timorese entrepreneurial teams they were voted the winner in the "start-up" category and will represent Timor-Leste and pitch their "Timor Mie" noodles to impact investors during a regional meet-up in Malaysia in April 2020.

In the meantime, the Timor Mie team is setting up their start-up and refining their product. Any enquiries and orders can be made here. So more than 60 years after they were first invented, the instant noodle is finally getting a healthy makeover courtesy of Timor-Leste's marungi trees and some enterprising food innovators in Timor-Leste!

ⁱ Instant noodle intake and dietary patterns are associated with distinct cardiometabolic risk factors in Korea. Journal of Nutrition, 2014 Aug; 144(8):1247-55. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24966409
ⁱⁱ The Eternal Life of Instant Noodles. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/the_instant_noodle

Mie Marungi: healthy instant noodles for Timor-Leste