Thanks. I’m much more interested in the sustainability of the ingredients than flavour or high protein v high carbohydrate. What about an organic version?
The product you seek is already out there and is called Ambronite. It costs way more than Huel and I’m sure when Ambronite started it was also organic but last time I checked their website there was no mention of being organic anymore, probably in an attempt to bring the cost down.
Huel’s aim is to bring decent nutrition at a price affordable to the masses and given how much it costs to make an organic, pesticide free, ethically sourced version the price would not fit into this aim.
We don’t create an organic version for a couple of reasons. One of them is cost, organic is far more expensive.
Then there’s bioavailability and shelf life. Many forms of vitamins and minerals degrade over shelf life and we want Huel to last or it wouldn’t be sustainable. The forms we use may not be organic, but they’re stable over a 12 month shelf-life.
5 Likes
I find your use of sustainable and organic together interesting. Organic farming produces up to 35% less yield of crops and would therefore require a proportionately greater mass of land to produce the same yield and presumably a proportionate amount of water too. We’ve got to consider everything, I personally don’t think organic is solution, even if it was the same price (all other factors being equal).
11 Likes
just wondering - & taking into account that climatedeath is already at defcon 6 -
how much more would huel cost if it were organic, ceteris paribus the ingredients / sourcing (but it probably is not as easy to get organic stuff from china).
I would certainly consider it.
Thanks!
Dan from Huel recently posted about an organic Huel:
1 Like
Read this today, scientists are now saying cutting air pollution can be causing heatwaves to be worse by disrupting formation of clouds that reflect heat back into space
Thanks for the open feedback on this post @JamesCollier. You mentioned ‘in terms of sustainability and there has been a project running on this and we plan on sharing information soon’
Is the information about this project available and, if it is, can you point us in the direction of it please?
Hi @dr_handbrake - the info we have at the moment is limited, and the project is currently ongoing albeit later than we’d have hoped.
We will be sharing info when we have it
3 Likes
Hi, just looking at the quality control pages. Regarding the following:
“We annually test all finished products for the presence of over 470 different pesticides. These are tested to extremely low levels, often to the limits of current testing methods.”
Does that mean you pesticide test just one batch of each type of finished product per year? Do you test any of the raw materials?
Also, regarding the testing, I looked at one of the reports and it looks like it is a multi-screen which as I understand it do not generally cover things such as Glyphosate and perchlorate. Do you/will you be testing for these as well? I think those, along with a number of other substances, are usually standalone tests because of the different methods required.
We regularly analyse our products for a range of potential contaminants including glyphosates. The daily allowable amount of glyphosate is 1.7mg/kg of body weight in the US and 0.3mg/kg in the EU and the levels of glyphosates in Huel products are well within these limits. The highest level found per 100g Huel powder was 0.6ppm which is 100 times less than the US limit and 20 times less than the EU level
We and our suppliers routinely examine our raw materials, and these are also well below allowable levels. Indeed, glyphosate levels in Huel products are often absent altogether, for example in our Gluten-Free Huel glyphosates are undetectable. All Huel products are safe to consume and enjoy.
4 Likes
Thanks for the reply Dan. I asked because the example pesticide report only listed one screen. I know they can encompass a multitude of pesticides but Glyphosate is nearly always a separate test and is listed as such on reports. I see them from various labs (Eurofins, Phytolab, GBA, SGS etc) as part of my job. Could I ask which EU product code you are using to calculate 0.6ppm as being 20 times less then the EU maximum residue level, just because the MRLs vary wildly?
I have to say that when you talk about pesticides and organic farming it seems a bit unbalanced to throw copper sulphate in but not acknowledge the potential for damage from conventional pesticides (not only to humans, both through ingesting and for growers working with them, but also the rest of the ecosystem - pollinators and the knock-on effects, runoff, soil health etc etc). There are many current legal battles going on and they wouldn’t have MRLs if they were totally safe would they!
Anyway, just to be clear, I was just seeking some detail and I’m not calling into question the safety of Huel in any way. In fact I’m having some right now, cheers!
I believe that’s for one of the Huel Vanilla Powder tests.
Don’t worry! I’m not saying there isn’t damage from pesticides just that organic farming isn’t exempt from this. It’s a common misconception held by some peope.
No problem, enjoy!
3 Likes
Has there ever been any talk of investing in processing the ingredients in house over in England rather than using suppliers?
You mean shipping whole flaxseeds/rice grains/sunflower seeds etc. from the country of origin and processing them to a powder in the UK?
1 Like
Is corona virus going to effect your supply chain for some of the ingridients coming from other countries?