Noodle producer sets two world records
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Semarapura, Bali
PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk., the producer of the popular instant noodles brands Indomie and Supermie, secured its place here on Thursday among the global community of Guinness world record holders by producing the largest packet and the largest serving of instant noodles.
The largest packet of Indomie instant noodles was 3.4 meters long, 2.355 meters wide and 0.47 meters thick with the total weight of 664.938 kilograms or equal to the combined weight of around 8,000 packets of instant noodles.
Some 50 engineers and workers were involved in the production of the record-breaking packet early in February at Indofood's main plant in East Java.
The production process was supervised by experts from the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency and the Guinness World Records to ensure that the dimensions were accurate and that the end product was fit for human consumption.
"We have conducted a thorough verification process and I may say that Guinness World Records is satisfied with the whole process. It is a staggering and fantastic achievement for Indofood," Guinness' representative Christian Marais said on Thursday night.
Marais, who led a four-member team of Guinness' engineers in verifying the records, presented the record certificates to Indofood's CEO Taufik Wiraatmadja during the closing ceremony of the first Bali Barong Festival 2005 at the Nyoman Gunarsa Museum (NGM) in Semarapura, the capital city of Klungkung regency, some 40 kilometers east of Denpasar.
Indofood was the main sponsor of the five-day event, which involved Barong troupes from various regencies in the island. The Barong troupe from Gianyar regency won the festival and claimed Rp 100 million in prize money.
"The largest packet of instant noodles is a new record category unlike the largest serving of instant noodles, which has been attempted at other places before," he told.
Earlier in the afternoon, Marais and his team witnessed a team of some 255 people cook at least 4.17 tons of Supermie noodles. Amazingly, it took them only 23 minutes to finish the chore. The noodles were then transported into a 1.3 meter-high giant bowl with a diameter of 2.6 meters before being distributed to thousands of people of Semarapura, who swarmed NGM's open stage.
This feat, according to Marais, has broken a previous record held by the Soba Association of Murayama city in Japan. In 1998, the association cooked 132 kilograms of Soba (buckwheat noodles) and served it in a 90.96 meters long wooden tray to 600 people.
"These achievements surely will strengthen Indofood's position as the market leader of the country's instant noodles," Taufik Wiraatmadja said.