A second Japanese noodle shop is incorporating U.S. corn flour in its ramen noodles as a result of the U.S. Grain Council’s dry milling promotion program.

The shop, located outside Tokyo, is using a blend of 10 percent corn flour and 90 percent wheat, and marketing the product as “Indian Ramen.�

The Council’s Japan office distributed its handbook containing the corn noodle formula and tasting samples to 270 Tokyo noodle shops in May and recently expanded the distribution to 250 shops in other cities. The Council is promoting a corn tortilla menu to cafes and restaurants in Tokyo as well.

U.S. corn sales to Japan for dry milled food products increased more than 17,000 metric tons (670,000 bushels) in the January-to-August period compared to the same period last year. Japanese food manufacturers produce 600,000 metric tons of noodles annually. A consistent 10 percent corn-inclusion rate would require 60,000 metric tons of corn (2.4 million bushels).