Is Nissin's Pufferfish Ramen Made With The Real Deadly Fish?

Nissin's original instant ramen may have been chicken flavored, but since then the company has produced ramen products in all sorts of flavors and formats, from pumpkin spice to pufferfish. Released in June 2024 in Japan, the Fugu Dashi Salt cup noodles are part of Nissin's premium Nissin Raoh line and feature air-dried noodles, a kelp dashi and salt-based broth, with dehydrated chicken meatballs, egg, and green onions, and an oil packet that adds the aroma of yuzu fruit and the flavor of infamous fugu (aka pufferfish or blowfish). This ingredient may have you questioning whether the ramen is made with real fugu, a fish that's known to be deadly when touched or eaten without proper preparation.

According to the Nissin website, the ramen pufferfish seasoning oil gives the cup the flavor of grilled fugu. It's not directly stated whether that flavor comes from real pufferfish, however the ingredients do mention pufferfish extract. For purposes of the ramen cup, the unopened oil packet is meant to be warmed on top of the cup as the noodles cook, which takes 5 minutes in this case, then opened and stirred into the broth after the noodles have cooked. Several YouTubers have tried these fugu ramen (and lived to tell the tale) and note that there isn't an obvious taste of fugu — although most admit they haven't actually tried fugu. The consensus is that the noodles have a pleasant salty fish-broth flavor.

Traditionally a delicacy in Japan, pufferfish is often enjoyed as sashimi, in a hot pot, fried, grilled, or even in a unique hot cocktail with sake called hirezake. In all forms though, there is a risk with consuming pufferfish. That's because it's a deadly fish that contains tetrodotoxin (or TTX), which can cause paralysis, nausea, heart failure, and even death when consumed in even tiny quantities. There's enough TTX in one pufferfish to kill 30 people, and there's no antidote. 

The TTX is found in different parts of the fish, depending on the species of pufferfish, and must be removed before it can be safely consumed. In Japan, chefs must undergo two years of training to be certified to prepare pufferfish, and only select restaurants are licensed to serve it. Despite these rigorous procedures, every year, people still succumb to TTX poisoning in Japan, with some fatalities. Pufferfish is usually quite expensive to try at a restaurant, and can cost upwards of 20,000 yen (around $140). In comparison, the suggested retail price of Nissin's fugu ramen is only 298 yen (or around $2), which makes it a much more affordable way to try the delicacy — though just as you'll have a hard time finding fugu in the U.S., you'll also struggle to source Nissin fugu ramen, as it was released only in Japan.