Are Batchelors Chicken Super Noodles Vegan?
Chicken Super Noodles are not certified vegan but as they do not contain any animal products or animal by-products they are suitable for vegans. Strict vegans, however, may avoid eating these noodles as they contain palm oil that may destroy animal habitats.
When it comes to vegetarian and vegan foods it is not always clear what products are suitable so attention needs to be paid to ingredients lists. Many people are surpassed to find that meat flavoured foods, such as crisps and sauces, are, in fact, suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
One food that may be considered vegan and vegetarian despite containing a label that says ‘chicken’ or ‘beef’ is Batchelors Super Noodles. Noodles are a staple dish around many houses in the UK and we are here to explore whether or not they are suitable for vegans.
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More about Super Noodles
Similar to the pot noodle, the status of Batchelors Super Noodles is iconic in some circles as they are a firm favourite among students and those looking for a quick and easy meal. Super Noodles consist of noodles that have been dehydrated and a sachet of flavouring.
There are lots of different noodle flavours including curry, chow mien, BBQ and chicken. The noodles are removed from the packet and placed in a pan or a container to be covered with boiling water.
When left for a few minutes the noodles soften and are ready to eat, once you have mixed the sachet of flavouring, make them a quick and was meal for lunch or a snack.
Are Batchelors Super Noodles vegan?
First of all, like many products that may be considered vegan, it is not straightforward. Some Batchelors Super Noodles are vegan friendly and some are not so you will need to check the ingredients list.
There is no official vegan certification on Super Noodles
But the Peri Peri, Mild Curry and Chow Mein flavoured noodles do not contain any animal products or animal by-products so they could be considered vegan-friendly. In regards to the noodles themselves, all Batchelors Super Noodles do not contain eggs so they are suitable for vegans.
Technically, if you were to eat the noodles without adding any of the sachets included then you would be eating a vegan-friendly dish as the noodles are suitable for vegans. The flavour sachets are packed separately so there should be minimal traces of meat products cross-contaminating the noodles.
Meat Flavoured Noodles
While the noodles are eggless, as discussed, some of the flavourings are not suitable for vegans. Somewhat surprisingly, some of the meat-flavoured sachets are vegan-friendly.
These flavours include Mild Curry Super Noodles, Chow Mein Super Noodles and Chicken Super Noodles. It is important to note that there are other meat flavours, including BBQ beef and bacon that do not contain meat but they do contain milk, which still make them unsuitable for vegans.
Chicken Super Noodles
One of the most popular Super Noodles flavours is chicken but there is some confusion as to whether they be enjoyed by vegetarians and vegans despite it being advertised as a meat product.
To reassure you, the full list of ingredients in Batchelors Chicken Super Noodles are:
Noodles (Water, Wheat Flour (with added Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Palm Oil, Antioxidants (Butylated Hydroxyanisole, Citric Acid, Propyl Gallate)), Glucose Syrup, Salt, Flavour Enhancers (Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium 5′-Ribonucleotides), Flavouring, Onion, Garlic, Potassium Chloride, Yeast Extract, Maltodextrin, Ground Turmeric, Acid (Malic Acid), Parsley, Black Pepper Extract
As you can see, the only allergen in chicken Super Noodles is wheat. This means that there is no milk product in the noodles to prevent them from being vegan-friendly.
The ‘chicken’ element of the Super Noodles, however, is not so clear. Historically, Batchelors listed ‘chicken fat’ in the flavouring element of the ingredients list.
This listing has now been removed but it is assumed that they still use chicken fat as a flavouring. This was a confusing move for people who enjoy Super Noodles as it may have given the impression that Batchelors had changed the recipe to make some of the meat flavoured varieties vegan-friendly.
If you are looking for the Peri-Peri chicken flavour rather than the standard chicken flavour then you need to make note of the packet size. In 2019 Batchelors reduced the size of all of their Super Noodles to 90g from 100g.
The change in packet size coincided with the company amending the Peri-Peri flavour noodles ingredients to remove milk. Therefore, any 90g packets of Peri-Peri noodles are vegan-friendly but the 100g packets that you may still find in the shops will not be suitable for vegans, only vegetarians.
In summary, Batchelors chicken flavour Super Noodles and also the Southern Fried Chicken Super Noodles are vegetarian or vegan-friendly. The Zingy Peri-Peri Chicken Super Noodles, however, are suitable for vegans and vegetarians.
Why there is no vegan certification for Super Noodles
The main reason why Batchelors do not have their Super Noodles certified as a vegan is that there is a risk of cross-contamination. The noodles are made by Premier foods and their manufacturing process means that they cannot guarantee that the Super Noodles will not be contaminated with milk from other products.
This is especially the case with Super Noodles as some of the flavour sachets contain meat traces and/or milk products. The fact that you cannot guarantee that vegan products and non-vegan products do not mix means that they cannot be certified vegan.
The issue of cross-contamination is a common dilemma for some vegans but most agree that due to the manufacturing processes employed by most companies there is always some minimal risk of vegan products being near non-vegan products.
Choosing to eat non-certified food that has been made in places where animal products have been is a personal decision for each vegan to make.
Palm Oil
You may have noticed that the ingredients list has palm oil in it, which is a contentious issue among vegans. While palm oil itself is vegan, as it does not contain animal products, it may contribute to animal abuse.
All palm oil is not sustainable, which is another reason vegans will avoid this ingredient. If a brand states that it uses sustainable palm oil a vegan may consider easting products containing it.
You can rest at ease when it comes to Batcherlors Super Noodles as the palm oil that they use is sustainable which means vegans should be ok to eat.
What is the ‘flavouring’ in Super Noodles
As we have discussed, the flavouring is chicken super noodles are likely to contain chicken as it was once listed in the ingredients. When it comes to other flavourings they are usually natural flavourings such as herbs and lemon zest but some are chemical made, using the like of petroleum.
Many flavourings include meat and meat by-products so there is a need to fully investigate the ingredients. As the ingredients list can be deceiving some vegans may be caught out that there are no obvious signs of animal products.
Low Fat Super Noodles
Super Noodles also make a low-fat version of most flavours and, again, it is not clear which ones are vegan friendly. When you look at the ingredients of these noodles there are allergen warnings including fish, molluscs and crustaceans which tells us that they may contain animal products.
The animal products may not be contained in the actual Super Noodles but could be in other products that are manufactured in the same factory. This cross-contamination issue will be the main reason why low-fat Super Noodles are not classed as vegan-friendly.
Summary
To summarise, the following Batchelors products are suitable for vegetarians:
- Batchelors Super Noodles BBQ Beef Flavour 90g
- Batchelors Super Noodles Curry Flavour 90g
- Batchelors Super Noodles Bacon Flavour 90g
- Batchelors Super Noodles Chow Mein Flavour 90g
- Batchelors Super Noodles Peri Peri Chicken Flavour 90g
To summarise, the following Batchelors products are suitable for vegans:
- Batchelors Super Noodles Peri Peri Chicken Flavour 90g
- Batchelors Super Noodles Chow Mein Flavour 90g
- Batchelors Super Noodles Mild Curry Flavour 90g
Overall, the advice to vegans is to check the ingredients list of Batchelors Super Noodles to ensure they are vegan-friendly. As the flavourings section of the ingredients list is unclear you may need to look at the Batchelors website for clarification, but it took some digging to find out what was reliably vegan-friendly.
You can take it from us that the Peri Peri Chicken flavour noodles, alongside Chow Mein Super Noodles and Mild Curry Super Noodles are suitable to eat if you are vegan but standard Chicken Super Noodles are not.
If you are completely unsure and you find yourself hungry with a packet of Super Noodles in your cupboard you can leave out the flavour sachet and just eat the plain noodles which are egg-free and suitable for vegans.
