Which instant-noodle inventor founded Nissin Food Products?

Momofuku Ando founded Nissin Food Products.

Ando was a Taiwanese-born Japanese inventor and businessman who established the company that became Nissin in 1948 in Osaka Prefecture. He later became famous for developing Chicken Ramen, marketed in 1958 as the first commercially successful packaged instant noodle product.

His breakthrough came through a flash-frying method: freshly made noodles were fried briefly, creating a porous structure that could rehydrate quickly in hot water. That innovation helped make instant noodles practical for home use and large-scale distribution.

Ando also created Cup Noodles in 1971 after adapting instant ramen to American eating habits. Koki Ando, one of the wrong options, was his son and later served as a Nissin executive, but he was not the company’s founder. Sankichi Ozaki and Takumi Yamada are not the canonical answer to this question.