Due to the warnings of German BfR around sucralose heating, I would like to ask how high the sucralose is heated in the Protein bars, and for the standard Ready-to-Drink.
Is it correct that Ready-to-Drink no longer has an emulsifier (Lecithin)? (I got 12x chocolcate RTD with Lecithin, and 12x banana without…)
If Lecithin is used just to make it a bit nicer and is non-necesssay (protein bars), please take into account the gut-brain connection (vs. emulsifiers) and its connection to cavernoma which are not that uncommon.
I would appreciate it if you did regular polling on the forum to find out more what people would like to see. For example: I would not be surprised if 80% think the protein bars are way too sweet.
In RTD, rapeseed oil is used which is a great choice. I wonder if rapeseed oil powder could be used instead of sunflower oil powder, for the Huel powder.
I wished you sold the flavors (at least the core chocolate/berry/banana/vanilla flavors) separately as powders so we could add them to the unflavored-unsweetened powder. Perhaps reduce the price of the Unflavored/Unsweetened a bit, such that UU and the separate powder will be at max 3-5% more expensive than the flavored huel, or even just as expensive. Then everybody can have their flavored huel with no sweetener, or their sweetener of choice.
In general I think Huel is underestimating the willingness of people to make their own powder when mixing in the shaker. E.g. ready-made mashed potatoes powder also says “add milk, some salt, and a bit of butter”. This just takes a few seconds, lets you make it exactly as you want, and actually adds to the experience whilst still being ultra-fast preparing of the meal. Many Huel consumers are “control freaks” and would totally buy a module based Huel system I think. Not every single ingredients, but subcomponents. I do not have the time to research DYI-alternatives to Huel. I trust the company and a module system would be the ideal solution.
Thanks for getting in touch with us and taking the time to share this with us. Lots of points to tackle so I hope my answers are helpful. I’ve numbered them like you to make it easier to follow and understand.
We don’t use sucralose in our bars. For Ready-to-Drink, the product is UHT-treated, meaning it’s held at a high temperature for a very short amount of time to ensure safety and shelf stability.
You’re correct, we don’t use lecithin in our RTDs.
While some research has linked two specific emulsifiers to negative impacts on gut microbiota, lecithin isn’t one of them. The emulsifiers involved, carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80, are not used in any Huel product.
That’s a fair comment. Sharing feedback here is genuinely valuable, we actively monitor community discussions, and many internal decisions are influenced by conversations we see across our forums and social channels.
Our powders benefit from a higher inclusion of flaxseed which, combined with sunflower oil, creates an excellent omega fatty acid profile. In RTDs, we use rapeseed oil to increase omega-3 content, as we’re unable to include as much flaxseed in that format.
Blast from the past! We’ve tried this before, but unfortunately it led to a lot of waste. Flavour boosts need to be produced in large quantities, and demand wasn’t high enough to make it viable long-term.
I think I get what you mean, but using “Huel” and a “module system” together feels a little at odds with what Huel is built for. Huel is intentionally simple, add water or grab an RTD and go. That said, we do appreciate how much customers value control and personalisation, and this kind of feedback never goes unnoticed.
Like I said, I hope this answers all your questions but if you have any further concerns or questions just let me know and I’ll be happy to help.
I think this would be a logistical nightmare and an advertising disaster, and would result in huge confusion amongst the majority of Huel’s customers which now due to the popularity of Huel are mainly focused on convivence. Huel’s products have always been ‘nutritionally complete’ - a module approach would deviate from this and would undoubtedly end up with people consuming far too much of one marco/micro and/or too little of another.
There are already unsweetened and unflavoured versions of the core powder ranges. Power users if you like are already able to add to these whatever they want to. Huel Original powder is sweetened but has a mild oaty flavour which I add raw cacao powder to. Blending fruits and other ingredients with Huel powder and cooking with Huel used to be popular years ago but has died off a lot these days at least with references to it on the forum. Huel may have helped this death along by abandoning and then hiding the recipes section of the website.
All of the Huel ingredients are listed on the pouch and there are companies like bulk.com which sell raw ingredients for the people who really want to create something themselves from component form.
These were really helpful replies. Thank you for taking the time to respond with good answers and in detail.
It is unfortunate there seems to be not enough demand for flavors to mix with the U&U. Are you sure about it?
There’s a huge amount of options of flavored&sweetened Huel, and just two U&U options. I wonder what the motives are for people buying the U&U. It could well be that the one of the main motivation is not having a sweetener (or less of it), and not so much the intensity of the flavor, that people pick U&U. If not a separately sold flavor, I wonder if an unsweetened but flavored complete huel powder (and even RTD) (i.e., not flavor sold separately) would be well-received and workable? It would be interesting what banana or berry would taste like with no sweetener. I am talking about just one or two unsweetened-but-flavored option. (chocolate and vanilla can easily be self-made, so perhaps not that. I am thinking banana and/or berry). This would also be in-line with the convenience idea of huel as it would be just that one bag, not mixing, and people can still add their sugar-of-choice if they want. It would also fix the problem that black is only available with stevia, and standard only with sucralose.
I remember reading in previous threads on the forum that the flavour profiles just don’t work without sweetener. So, for example, if you add a berry flavour but with no sweetener it tastes unpleasant…
Honestly, we look at every possible avenue before we decide to remove products. That being said it could be something we see in the future but I think it’s very unlikely.
If the current flavours are too much for you, one thing we’ve seen people do is tone them down with unflavoured and unsweetened powders. Using one scoop of both can help take the sweetness down and be a more palatable option for you.