The transition from square bagged instant noodles to round bagged instant noodles is a global trend in the instant noodle industry, as the following advantages of round bagged noodles: 

With same weight, round noodle block has a much larger external dimension than folded square noodle block, providing consumers a better visual perception. 

Round noodle block doesn’t need to be in a specified direction during production, no special sorting requirement for entering the packaging machine, which can reduce labor costs. 

Round noodle block doesn’t have four sharp corners, will cause less collision and less defect during production.

Round noodle block can be automatic loaded into boxes, no require manual intervention, further reducing labor costs. 

A special process is applied for round noodles before folding, significantly improving the taste of the noodles. 

The shape of the noodle block can be specially treated to facilitate automated packaging, reducing the miscutt rate of packaging and lowering the waste rate to below 1%, while also reducing the need for manual intervention. 

Due to the high degree of automation in the production process, the weight difference between noodle block can be reduced to +/-1G. 

The round bagged noodles are the improvement over square bagged noodles, its benefits and advantages are no double. In those countries with advanced instant noodle technology, such as Japan, South Korea and China, new instant noodle projects since 2010 have primarily focused on round noodles cake, and some have even converted existing square bagged noodles to round bagged noodles. Why is this the trend? Because most bowls are in round shape, square noodle cake often need to be broken into several pieces to fit into the bowl when soaking. If putting in a whole piece, a lot of water needs to be added and caused diluting the flavor. With the improvement of noodle cakes to be a round shape, it is more convenient for consumer to place it at the bottom of the bowls, while the manufacturers can have a good control on the broken noodle rate to be less than 1% during production. It also avoids the disadvantage of hardening at the folds of square noodles. However, why are most bagged noodles in some countries still square? We believe it is determined by the history of instant noodle’s development. Early instant noodle production lines could only produce square folded noodle cakes, while converting original production line requires a certain amount of capital investment, and square folded noodles in markets have not been rejected yet, some manufacturers may prefer to keep current production line and observe the situation. Another reason is that instant noodles are primarily consumed by boiling rather than soaking in some countries, so the factor of "most bowls are round" is not considered. In those countries with large instant noodle consumption, market competition is fierce. In the case of same quality, how can one win more market share? Whoever is more considerate of consumers will occupy more of the market. Perhaps this is the fundamental reason why square bagged instant noodles are being converted to round bagged instant noodles. In conclusion, whether round noodle blocks or square noodle blocks are better depends primarily on consumer acceptance in local market. However, Heshan Company believes that the transition from square bagged instant noodles to round bagged instant noodles is a global trend in the instant noodle industry.