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POT Noodle is making a huge change to one of its iconic snacks – and fans will be divided.
The savoury treats have long been a favourite snack of hungover students and people wanting a tasty lunch on a budget.
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People love the snacks for being quick and simple – after all – you just need to add water.
So some fans might be a bit surprised to hear that Unilever – which makes Pot Noodles – is making a big change to the snack.
The food giant is trialling paper packaging on its chicken and mushroom flavour pots at Tesco.
Around 500,000 pots will be part of the trial, which will last for a limited time, and they will be made of 90% paper.
The new packaging features a single layer of plastic film to keep the noodles fresh and to protect the paper when water is added.
Unilever say the packaging can still be recycled at home, but empty sauce packets can only be taken to soft plastic collection points.
The manufacturer says it plans to make the change across its full Pot Noodle range if the trial is successful.
Andre Burger, general manager foods (Nutrition) at Unilever UK and Ireland, said: “Pot Noodle has been a loved British brand for over 40 years, and whilst our great taste will never change, we’re always challenging ourselves to make our products and packaging better.
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“We are committed to reducing the plastic in our packaging and to a paper-based future for our pots, without compromising on the Pot Noodle experience our shoppers know and love.
“We are now excited to learn from this initial trial with the ambition of bringing our paper pots to more shoppers across the UK soon.”
Previous changes to beloved snacks have left shoppers divided, including McDonald’s scrapping plastic spoons for their McFlurry’s.
Customers slammed the new paper spoons, describing them as a “soggy mess”.
The Sun has asked Unilever and Tesco if the new pots are available in all stores as well as when shoppers will be able to get their hands on them, and for how long.
It comes after two controversial Pot Noodle flavours were brought back last year – and they were met with mixed reviews.
It brought back its Abra Kebabra Doner Kebab flavour in July for the first time in nine years.
In December, a Christmas dinner-flavoured version of the popular snack has been spotted in Asda stores by eagle-eyed fans.
Meanwhile, a number of supermarkets and big brands have made changes to their packaging in recent months.
Mars is ditching plastic packaging and going back to using paper — like it did up until the mid-1970s.
It means bars will feel a little different, but company bosses promise it will not affect the freshness — or customers will get a refund.
Sainsbury’s has altered the way its whole chicken range is packaged, in a move that is designed to help the environment.
And earlier in the year they upset shoppers by starting to sell beef mince in vacuum-sealed plastic, leaving some customers claiming it made the meat taste “revolting”.
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