Company leaders say constant focus on creating high quality products rich in Vietnamese flavours have enabled the “3 Mien” (Three Regions) instant noodles to become one of the most popular brands in the market.

UNIBEN, the company that owns the brand, is a food manufacturing company that welcomes visitors, including the media, to its factory in the Pho Noi A Industrial Zone in Hung Yen Prorince.

The factory showcases state-of-the-art machinery and a thorough quality assurance process. These, company officials say, are key elements behind the policy of producing only the best quality products.

Visitors tour food manufacturing line of Uniben food manufacturing company in Pho Noi A Industrial Zone in Hung Yen Province. — Photo Uniben

Special recipe

UNIBEN’s suppliers are subjected to a strict selection process and rigorous evaluation to ensure that their materials meet domestic and international standards. The ingredients are also inspected before use.

It is the process of mixing the ingredients that gives the 3 Mien instant noodles their unique tastes. Flour, bean, oat milk and other flavours are mixed in different ratios and at different temperatures to create noodles that are especially crunchy and tasty.

Modern machines ensure that the noodle strings are cut with the right thickness, stickiness, chewiness and flexibility. The perfectly cut and curly noodle strings are then steamed to ensure they are thoroughly cooked and carefully formed. The final products should be of light, transparent colour, even in size with a bit of a glossy look, staff explained.

The next step is adding flavour to the strings with a special recipe sauce that imparts particularly Vietnamese flavours to the 3 Mien noodle. UNIBEN staff said a lot of attention is paid to ensure 3 Mien noodles meet food safety regulations. The noodles are cooked in oil at 160oC – inducing the Maillard reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar – to drain out humidity and better preserve the taste, flavour, crunchiness and colour.

High-quality palm oil from reputable suppliers are used during this process. A special method is also used to allow fresh oil to be added during the process, which is limited to under just two minutes. Residual oil is later removed from the noodles with steam. Next, the noodles are cooled off inside an air-tight chamber before being packaged with spices by an automated assembly line to further ensure 3 Mien preserves its flavours while meeting the strictest food safety standards.

Visitors can see that close attention to detail and a carefully controlled production process is used to produce quality noodles that also meet customer satisfaction at several levels.

Noodle strings are processed in an air-tight chamber at the UNIBEN factory in Hung Yen that produces the popular 3 Mien noodles. — Photo Uniben

Familiar taste

Thanh Binh, a resident of Ha Noi’s Hoai Duc District, said that after trying many different brands of spicy-and-sour noodles that she likes, she finally settled on 3 Mien as her favourite brand. “The noodles have a fresh and familiar taste,” she said.

Company officials say that without much spending on commercial advertising, 3 Mien has been able to establish itself as one of the most popular brands in Viet Nam. It has also made its way to around ten international markets, some of them with particularly high quality standards and strict food safety regulations.

Along with instant noodles, UNIBEN aims to take its instant Pho, the iconic Vietnamese dish, to more foreign markets in order to bring the essence of Vietnamese cuisine to international consumers and make a name for Vietnamese cuisine around the world.