I tried the new bars for the first time having really gotten on well with the last ones.
Fortunately with the new recipe I thought I would be careful and just have a small bite. Straight away my lips felt sore and swelled a little and my mouth tingled inside. My stomach was immediately sore and my throat swelled slightly. I was lucky to have only had a small amount. It’s been about two hours and I am still feeling the effects of it so I feel confident it was an allergic reaction and not just a little intolerance.
I have a peanut allergy and I am also allergic to several tree nuts. I am aware the packaging says may contain peanuts and tree nuts but I read all the information about the new bar and I didn’t see anything suggesting there was going to be a problem with allergens in the new version.
I also feel this new version has tried to be made into every other kind of healthy snack bar in the market which I think is a shame. I instantly didn’t like the sugary/syrupy texture and thought it seemed greasy.
That aside I just wanted to make sure everyone considers the allergen risk with these. I think a lot of people are drawn to any snack bar that doesn’t contain a lot of sugar or have nuts in the ingredients so would this probably be popular among anyone with a nut allergy.
I’m guessing it has been produced by someone else, perhaps a larger manufacturer that produces a lot of similar products which contain nuts?!
I don’t think it is safe!!
It would be very helpful if anyone could reassure me about the powder now, I’m guessing it has a different manufacturing process.
Huel has really helped me maintain weight so I hope I can still keep using the unflavoured/unsweetened powder.
I shall definitely try and return the 2 boxes I have.
You are certainly right in your assessment!
However…
Almost everything has may contain peanuts/nuts on and its very difficult to avoid.
And…
I was concerned that a lot of people might make the same mistake moving from the old bar to this one and might not be so lucky as to take a small bite.
The old bar was great and all the info that came with the release of this new one (as good as it was) didn’t mention an increased allergy risk or suggest it was made somewhere else that might increase the chances of nuts.
You get confident with products you’ve had for a while and I was lucky I checked the packaging on these new ones, which ARE different from the old, that led me to just try a little.
Because of that transition I’d be concerned for people thinking they are getting the same safe ingredients.
I certainly wouldn’t blame anyone with an allergy for tucking into a new bar thinking it’s ok and that concerns me!
I’m lucky to not have any allergies, but my understanding was that any hidden nuts could potentially be life-threatening so you were supposed to just avoid anything that might have nuts, no matter how remote the possibility?
It’s interesting though… if we look to the v3 discussion the fish warning has been explained as being something they had to add even though there’s almost certainly no fish present.
So on the one hand there’s clearly a thing around nuts that mean the warning is needed whilst we’re told there’s nothing to worry about with fish.
Well it’s a medical issue vs an ethical one. If you were ethically opposed to nuts in your food, you could still eat v3.1 bars because they don’t add nuts.
Someone allergic to fish should avoid the v3 powder. If there’s been official advice to the contrary, that is extremely reckless.
I’ve always had my allergies and it is an individual responsibility however I remember in the news several years ago there was an issue with manufacturers putting allergy warnings on absolutely everything which undermined their purpose as you would still be eating things on with a warning of may contain nuts that you knew were completely safe!
So there is a long term problem with identifying what you should and shouldn’t have.
My main concern here is the old packaging on the previous Huel bar didn’t say… ‘may contain peanuts/nuts’ (This was great because rarely products do)
If like me you had been comfortably tucking into that previous version for some time, you would have already done you’re checks for allergens and I think it would be so easy to not double check the packaging to see that new warning. Also worth considering these products are on subscription…
Fortunately I did check at the last minute and only tried a small bit which gave me an instant reaction.
Because of that instant reaction from a small piece I’m concerned that if someone with a worse allergy unfortunately manages to eat quite a lot of it thinking it’s safe like the old one, a serious accident might happen!
There needs to be some sort of post from Huel when you go to buy the bars or an email letting people know. Because it would be so easy to do and it’s going to let people buying it know straight away.
Again particularly important because you’re going from one version to a newer one (that doesn’t actually contain nuts in the ingredients)
I feel sure it is nuts in this case but of course it could be a new ingredient I wasn’t aware of.
I can totally see why you thought it may be safe to try considering the previous version was fine, despite carrying the same warning,
Luckily you were sensible and only tried a small bite.
I totally get your frustration - lots of products state ‘may contain’, but it means if you have allergies it’s very difficult to determine what is a very real risk and what is probably safe and can mean you have to avoid literally thousands of staple food products that everyone else takes for granted.
I think it’s a shame that Huel products are starting to contain more and more allergens.
Those of us with allergies need access to convenient healthy foods even more than everyone else.
I like my Christmas crackers like I like my women. With a paper hat inside and maybe a small plastic frog or pack of jeweller’s screwdrivers (am I doing this right?)
I have an allergy to peanuts, pine nuts, pistachios. I can tolerate almonds and hazelnuts. Therefore a ‘May contain nuts’ warning means nothing to me unless the warning is explicitly about peanuts.
That said I had only 1 issue with the previous bars where on 1 occasion (out of May be the 100 bars I ate) where my body detected peanuts and gave a mild adverse reaction.
Even though being able to produce a true totally allergen free product would a great boost for many people – I’m not even sure it’s entirely possible.
The scope of ingredients used and manufacturing facility cross contamination would make it very difficult – even in a dedicated controlled facility there will still be issues.
It’s funny (OK – not so funny) that many vegan food companies offering ‘allergen free’ products do not in fact meet this requirement. The range, variation and crossover allergic reaction scenarios are simply too broad and affect sufferers in different degrees and combinations.
These companies often site using products like flax as an allergen free ingredient which it simply isn’t. It’s true that a pure flax allergy is very rare but it frequently causes crossover allergic reactions with OAS sensitive people (97% of people studied who reacted badly to flax also had OAS with other trigger foods) which, while uncomfortable, are infrequently serious and avoidable depending on how the food is prepared. A pure flax allergy is quite serious and causes vomiting, diarrhoea, respiratory problems and (extremely rarely) life-threatening anaphylaxis.
So, I guess the take away from this is, as old man John Lydgate once said “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.
I’m really sorry to hear this Ben, I hope you’re feeling better now. The warning is there due to a possible contamination risk in the factory when the bars are manufactured rather than the ingreidents in the bar.
The powder does not have a nut warning on the label and is also made in a different factory, so is fine for you to consume. The same is true for Ready-to-drink.
The old bar was made in a different factory and did not have a nut contamination risk, the new bars do. With an allergy it’s really important to listen to the warnings on the back of pack even if the ingredients do not contain nuts and you have consumed other similar products with no issues. It’s not worth the risk.
Just to confirm do the bars contain the explicit warning ‘May contain peanuts’ excluding the phrase traces of peanuts or nuts. I am asking this because I have not seen the packing or yet ordered these bars.
the warning on the website says: This product is made on equipment that also handles tree nuts & peanuts. May contain mustard. the only ingredient explicitly called out as an allergen is oats.