Convenient to cook and easy to preserve, instant noodles have become one of the few products that remained unaffected by the COVID-19 epidemic and instead saw a surge in sales. Buoyed by the resurgent demand, companies are now increasing their investments on the products by making them more delicious and healthy to meet the discerning tastes of consumers.

Master Kong of Tingyi Cayman Islands Holding Corp, China's largest instant noodle maker, has been cashing in on the higher-end segment of the market and seen positive results.

During the first six months of this year, Master Kong saw its instant noodle business achieve sales revenue of 14.9 billion yuan ($2.2 billion), up 29.16 percent on a yearly basis. During the period, its net profit stood at 1.69 billion yuan, up 93.54 percent on a yearly basis, according to the company.

The company's higher-priced instant noodle products saw sales revenue soar by 47.8 percent on a yearly basis during the same period, while instant noodles in cups reported double-digit growth, the company said.

"Convenience food is becoming more healthy, safe and distinctive. Retailers need to make innovations to provide products with better taste, more attractive packaging and high-quality raw materials to meet the changing demands," said Shen Qun, a professor at the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering of China Agricultural University.

From January to June, major instant noodle maker Uni-President China Holdings Ltd achieved sales revenue of 5.21 billion yuan, up 22 percent year-on-year. Uni-President said it has been focusing on using better raw materials, including the use of broth and more healthy and fresh cold noodles.

Japanese convenience food and instant noodle maker Nissin Foods Co Ltd saw sales of convenience foods in China reach HK$1.74 billion ($224.5 million) in the first half of this year, up 15.9 percent on a yearly basis.

Targeting increasingly diversified demands in the market, Nissin Foods has endeavored to innovate with different ideas. For female consumers who would like to keep fit, the company has launched high-fiber and low-calorie products. For the elderly group, it has introduced Japanese buckwheat noodles in small packages. For young people, it has launched featured products such as noodles in Thai style Tom Yam Kung soup (spicy seafood soup), and Lanzhou beef noodles.

Kazuo Kawasaka, general manager of Nissin China, said: "We have put an inner cover inside the instant noodle package to place the fork separately in one of our cup noodle products in China. We take the demand of consumers as the highest principle of innovation. We found the purchasing frequency of the product increased after the launch of such designs."

Kiyotaka Ando, chairman and CEO of Nissin Foods and the director of World Instant Noodles Association, said the pandemic has brought irreversible changes to people's lifestyles. The instant noodle industry has shown its resilience in fighting the crisis, and the supply chain of the sector has been able to maintain regular operations.

At the same time, the instant noodle industry needs to draw up new strategies regarding issues such as climate change and environmental protection. It can further promote some environment-friendly measures, such as introducing biological material packaging and contribute to the reducing of greenhouse gas emissions and continue to raise the value of instant noodles, Ando said.

Unlike before, increasingly advanced automatic manufacturing equipment and logistics have helped the convenience food industry to raise its overall strength and advantages.

Shao Wei, vice-president of Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology, said: "The market has shown a huge demand for convenience food since the outbreak of COVID-19, as the governments of various countries and regions are urging people to go outside of the house as little as possible.

"We need to research on the changed market demand after the epidemic comes under more control and upgrade the products and management models accordingly, and tap more young consumers through digital sales channels," she said.

Zhengzhou-based instant noodle maker Baixiang Food Group said it aims to develop more tasty products with better raw materials and noodle-making techniques. The company uses a special technique to freezedry noodles at -30 C to lock the nutrients in fresh noodles. When cooking, the noodles will be able to restore the original taste and texture after boiling.

Wang Yanli, deputy general manager of the R&D center of Baixiang Food, said that the company is increasing its investment in research and development by building more advanced labs, upgrading facilities, and attracting more talents. The company has also established research institutes in South Korea and Japan, she said.

"We developed buckwheat instant noodles and kept improving its taste, to cater to the group who would like to eat more healthy food and keep fit. Besides, promoting the products through livestreaming sessions online is also part of our sales focus," said Wang.

Meanwhile, Jinmailang, a Hebei-based instant noodle maker, saw its sales in June rise by 50 percent on a yearly basis. Its sales growth rates have been among the highest among domestic instant noodle makers for 13 quarters in a row.

Liu Jian, product director of Jinmailang, said: "Consumers who were born after 1990 and 1995 have become the major consumer group for convenience food and we need to keep innovating the products to meet the demand of the younger generation."

During the first six months of this year, the instant noodle sector in China saw its overall sales volume edge up by 5.6 percent on a yearly basis. Overall sales revenue increased by 11.5 percent on a yearly basis, according to market research firm Nielsen.

With a growing number of young people being the main consumers in the country, the convenience food sector is expected to see a five-year period of high-speed growth, said Zhu Danpeng, a food industry analyst.

Besides instant noodles, spiral shell rice noodles, a specialty of Liuzhou in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has also gained huge popularity at home and abroad since the outbreak of the pandemic.

From January to June, total sales of packaged spiral shell rice noodles in the autonomous region stood at 4.98 billion yuan. From January to July, the export value of the food exceeded 15 million yuan, which was significantly higher than the total export value recorded last year, according to the local customs department.

The spiral shell rice noodles, which taste spicy and include bamboo shoots, beans and fungus as ingredients, have been mainly exported to the United States, Australia and Europe. This year, the products also entered some new overseas markets such as Singapore and New Zealand.

With longer working hours, more urbanites spend less time doing housework and more time relaxing, and they prefer to buy ready-to-cook food. The core for retailers to achieve sustainable growth is that their instant noodle products should be tasty and healthy, said consultancy Roland Berger.

The products of many convenience food brands can come close to tastes found in restaurants and they have developed more varieties that can satisfy the demands of the younger generation, it said.