Expanded polystyrene has an extremely low loss tangent and dielectric constant, so I fail to see how microwave heating causes more chemical leaching than hot water.
One might think the water in the soup would moderate the temperature of the other components and keep them from reaching significantly above its own boiling point. Is this intuition not entirely accurate?
The plastic above the water line has no heat sink and can melt if you cook the noodles too long in the microwave. That shouldn't happen when you boil water on the stove and dump it into the cup, even if you cook the water for far too long.
What's interesting is that the instructions imply that you need to use the cup. I don't have one in front of me but I remember reading something like, "add hot water up to the line , cover." I don't remember it ever saying to use a different container. The assumption, for me, was that the cup was microwave safe. Mmm, styrofoam and water was tasty. :)
It's because the cup is insulated to hold in boiling water long enough to properly cook the noodles. The "cover" instruction is again to retain heat. It's probably? microwave safe if you completely remove the cover. But college dorm rooms don't allow microwaves, they do allow electric kettles.
Typed while enjoying a spicy hot chicken maruchan.
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Typed while enjoying a spicy hot chicken maruchan.