Just to say a big thanks for listening, this is great news, and I’ll be switching to U/U Huel as soon as I’ve demolished the last of my 1.2 Vanilla!
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…aaaand that’s the way you do it!
Great job team, thanks for the update Julian: will start subscription as soon as I run out of my 1.2. 
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Who cares, we’re leaving the EU anyway! 
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Excellent. It’s good to see the Huel team responding to feedback in a positive way.
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If the rumours are to be believed, we might not be the only one. We might just be the first in a series of dominoes…
Yikes… :’(
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@thrope got his numbers mixed up but our point still stands - why are your nutritional specs so messed up that they can go from being 4.9g to 3.3g (of Sodium in 2000kcal of Huel) without a change in ingredients. You’ve just picked a different source of information.
Surely the spec sheets from your suppliers are the best reference material you have in lieu of doing significant periodic testing yourselves. And by the sounds of it the spec sheets haven’t changed so why should one believe in the new numbers? If the old numbers were valid, they are still valid. What makes NutriCalc more authorative on, for example, the Sodium content of your oats than the supplier themselves?
Also, this is an absurd statement…
… because there was no actual reduction in salt, just a change in the label.
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You say “Surely the spec sheets from your suppliers are the best reference material” why are they? They often only provide macros and are just numbers on a sheet.
So we decided we wanted independent lab tests, what could be more accurate than a lab test? The answer is multiple lab tests from multiple labs, and that is what nutricalc use.
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Thanks for the reply. You caught me out with my quote - I meant to convey the idea that the suppliers specs should be the “best” in the absence of any other concrete data but as you pointed out they might not have the completeness required to calculate all of Huel’s nutritional profile.
Maybe I completely misunderstood - have NutriCalc actually received Huel samples (or samples of the core ingredients at least) to perform their tests on? If they tested Huel directly you should make that clear because that would be commendable and I could understand why their nutritional values would be a reputable reference in that case.
Do you use NutriCalc exclusively for all of your ingredients so?
Edit: In terms of clarity and comprehension - when reading that your tests with Intertek were a one-off I must have deduced that your testing in general was a one-off and not just with Intertek. I look forward to being proved wrong.
Guys - I’ve contacted NutriCalc and asked them to clarify some points; I’ll then come back with a response.
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Huh, so I haven’t been involved with the community and missed the discussions leading up to this, but if I understand correctly, Huel will no longer contain “everything your body needs”, since it has a lower than recommended salt content? I will now need to weigh up a few grams of salt to add to my Huel every day?
No, because the figures for salt are a “maximum”, not recommended amount. The levels that it’s at now are enough for most people, but not exceeding the maximum as it was before.
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Thanks to the Huel team for reducing the salt content. But this whole issue does raise a few concerns:
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Why did the Huel team think that increasing the salt content to above the NHS maximum recommended intake in V2.0 was a good idea in the first place? Increasing salt content to above the maximum recommended intake undermines our faith in the Huel team. No medical or nutritional expert in the UK would advise their patients to consume more salt than the NHS guideline for general members of the public, and yet that’s exactly what Huel did - by a small amount for women (i.e. 2000 kcal), a large amount for men (2500), and a huge amount for a man trying to put on weight (3000). I appreciate Julian’s apology, but it’s not really enough. What went wrong? Why should we trust other decisions the team make?
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If Nutricalc are the “industry standard” for nutritional information, what does that mean for the way Huel calculated its nutritional information before? Was this below accepted standards? Great that James is checking details with Nutricalc. It would be helpful to understand exactly what and how Huel is tested.
I think Huel is a great idea, and really believe in the potential health, ethical and environmental benefits. But if Huel wants to claim to provide everything someone needs to live a healthy life, there’s a huge responsibility to get that right.
To be blunt, in version 2.0 Huel created a product that was unhealthy. If consumed 100% (or even less for men) over several years, Huel would have increased its users risk of high blood pressure, a “major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and premature death” (to quote the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition).
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@nickymoo is absolutely right.
Stop believing these numbers as if they came from the Holy Bible.
It seems a lot of people here have no clue about how this food industry runs.
Lab tests, for all nutrients and vitamins, are VERY VERY expensive, impossible to make an every batch!
The more natural ingredients you have, the more difficult it is to know the real figures. Suppliers are always changing their sources and farmers, depending on weather, prices, rates and politics, and they DON’T run new lab tests every day.
The figures are exact only with added ingredients, like sea salt. But not with natural products.
So truth is: none really know. Almost all figures are averages figures, typical values, and you’ll have to live with a margin of error (and a big one, sometime more than 15%!). Food industry is not pharmaceutical industry.
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I’m delighted you expanded upon these ideas. We’re not on different sides of this debate. Ultimately it would be great if we could get some idea of the accuracy and precision of the provided Huel Nutritional Information. Certain food products can be very reproduceable (think Mars Bars) because, as you mentioned, certain ingredients can be quite isolated and exact (salt, refined sugars and grains, etc.).
Presumably the largest nutritional variation in Huel would be associated with the Oats and the Flaxseeds as they are wholefoods (the protein powders are isolates). There’s a chance that the Huel team have some decent statistics for their ingredients and if they could share them with us that could be a win for everyone (I don’t think seeing some data for their source of oats, for example, would give competitors any advantage).
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Hello, this is great news! I was fairly vocal about this before because I believe very strongly in reducing dietary salt intake, and I am glad that such a reduction has been made.
Now the awkward question: I purchase Huel in the largest quantity possible (for the bulk discount!) and I didn’t know that what I received would be this new higher-salt formula. Is it at all possible for me to return/exchange this, for the newer reduced-salt formula?
Thanks!
I thought Nutricalc was a database where you fill in all your ingredients etc and it gives you relevant stats?
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Yes, they have return polcies. I even think they accept opened bags, as long as the vacuum seal is properly shut and it weighs in properly.
Check the website and look for it. They’re probably very willing to exchange or refund.
Why should we trust other decisions the team make?
Trust is overrated. Scrutinize everything. Especially the “reputables”.
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@t00sp00ky this info direct from nutricalc…
NutriCalc is the industry standard calculation tool, used and approved by Trading Standards.
In the main file, the figures we provide in NutriCalc are based on the latest FSA figures (Standard accepted figures for the food industry) which we have recalculated to be in line with the latest EU1169/2011 legislation.
However, as there is natural variation with oats, using our chemical analysis background, we have created figures in the supplementary file (‘Oats, typical’) that take this into account and which we are confident are a good representation of an average of the values for specific batches of oats.
Dr David Bartley is the leading expert in this field and therefore we are confident that these figures are the best available.