Was scrolling through Facebook, used to seeing Huel ads all the time, and then THIS popped up
At first I thought it was a parody of Huel (because of the colour scheme and font etc.) but it appears to be an actual thing??! Has anyone heard of this or tried it lmao
((also is it even legal to basically copy another brand haha)) edit: I guess that’s how brand competition works, feel free to share more info on how this & copyright works it’s fascinating! & thanks for sharing all your experiences too
They do tell you if you search. I doubt that they’re any real competition for Huel, but I do think it’s incredibly rude to mimic Huel’s branding like that.
I received some samples of Feed. bottles and bars last year and I was impressed by the taste. In terms of nutrition the minerals seem solid but the forms of vitamins is not given so I can’t comment there. They seem to have a decent focus on healthy ingredients - moreso than a lot of competing brands, but the protein content of some of their recipes are a little low (aiming for 50g per day in some, with others hitting 100g).
As for those saying they seem to have ripped off Huel’s branding, it’s worth baring in mind Huel’s branding is no more than black text on a white background, with this being the opposite (white text, black background). Given the minimalist nature of these designs, it definitely isn’t stolen. In fact, given that exact logic, Huel could get in trouble for using the same black text on white background style of the original complete meal replacement, Soylent.
Edit: I should add, there are a lot of similar competing products out there. Ads for these companies are very unlikely to be fake, but you can use places like blendrunner or eatcomplete to ensure they’re legit and not scams.
Gotta agree on that. Particularly the bars are really tasty, in my opinion.
Regarding how healthy they are… I think that is not as clear cut. A lot of sugar (even if in many cases from isomaltulose), low sugar and only from pea etc.
They do have a crazy array of products though.
Shall I add, they often compete for the same keywords,e.g. “complete meal”, “complete food” or they even tend to buy ads with the name of competing brands (not feed. exclusively but in general).
I believe the jury is still somewhat out on isomaltulose, but as sugars go it seems to certainly be a contender for healthiest consumed in large quantities. I personally prefer the oat flour approach, but at least when it comes to bars I’d say I believe the sugar content of Feed bars is better than that of Huel bars - both are higher than I’d like to see (Feed moreso with 21.7g per 400 calories vs Huel’s 16.32), but with Feed, the sugar comes predominantly from a mix of agave syrup (GI of ~32) and isomaltulose (GI of ~32), while the sugar in Huel bars is predominantly brown rice syrup (GI of ~98).
As for low-protein, I agree that the 50g per 2000 calories in some of their recipes is too low. I’d like to see it increased to a minimum of 75g, but the 100g they have in some recipes (like the bars) is definitely adequate.
As for only using pea, it’s been a while since I checked the formula of their other products, but consulting the label I’m using now (the chocolate flavoured feed bar), they use a mix of pea, rice and soy (bad for those needing to avoid soy but should be a complete protein).
Most of the analysis above has admittedly been on the bars as I happened to already have that tab open on my phone, so it may not apply to the shakes.
Very good point. When I started my foray into the world of complete foods (buying Joylent back in 2014 or 2015 I believe), there were numerous adverts on Google above Joylent’s site (despite my search being specifically for Joylent) for other companies like Queal and Jake.
