I recently purchased Huel after watching many videos about this product, soylent, etc. I wanted something to help me get in some more nutrition/or save time while eating. I received the gluten-free vanilla version about a week after ordering. Then the past three days I’ve been taking in about 800 calories of it a day, to get my body used to it. I wanted to do something extreme eventually and maybe even go 30 days on just Huel.
What I found though is that my face broke out in hives and my throat itched tremendously for about half an hour after consuming it. At first, I thought the reaction must be caused by something else, even though I had not added anything else to my diet. After the third time, I’ve decided not to attempt it anymore. All of the ingredients are things I’ve eaten before in my diet. Not sure why I have had this strange reaction to it.
I’ve read other threads on this forum about a very small number of people who are allergic to a particular form of Vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin) which is found in Huel.
Put ‘b12 reaction’ or ‘hives’ or ‘rash’ or ‘itch’
into the search box above and see if any of the other peoples experiences match yours.
The only other ingredient that could possibly cause a reaction is sucralose, but that tends to be in loads of foods and drinks now, especially since the sugar tax, so if it was this, you would probably have experienced this reaction before.
I guess if you want to know for sure, you could get some Vitamin B12 as Cyanocobalamin and see if you react to it in the same way. Maybe check with your doctor first though that it’s safe to experiment with !
You don’t want to make yourself really ill 
I guess it would be helpful to know for sure what ingredient you’re allergic to - so you can avoid it in other foods and supplements in the future.
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Hi @deaconish
Sorry to hear you’ve experienced this.
It’s hard to pinpoint why this could be happening. A possible reason may be as per @ChristinaT’s suggestion on the type of B12 we include in Huel, but this is a guess and based only on a few anecdotes.
Thank you both for your responses. I will avoid cyanocobalamin for the future. I’ve never had that particular form of b12 that I know of so it’s possible that’s it. For what it’s worth, the product has a decent taste and a fine texture. I do like it better when done in a vitamix and then refrigerated for a while to chill it. It seems a great product, really sad I had a reaction to it.
Another note: I did the search as you recommended and found an article where someone posted a list of potential reactions to that form of B12 supplement. Most of them were spot on for what happened to me. Thanks again, better to know now from a mild reaction than to find out from a more serious one.
@deaconish it’s always worth mentioning any kind of allergic reaction to your GP so a note can be made in your medical record.
Also they may want to run some tests to rule out any other possible causes.
I don’t know if they could also test your reaction to the b12, but it’s worth asking.
Last thing you want to do is make an incorrect assumption. Comparing to other people’s symptoms and experiences is a great starting point but shouldn’t be used as a definitive diagnosis… just in case.
Its worth knowing for sure (if possible!)
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