Improved taste – we’ve made subtle improvements to all flavours
We’ve removed kombucha – following the extensive nutritional testing, we discovered that kombucha made minimal contribution to the nutrition content and was, therefore, unnecessary
Lycopene has been removed – Several regions in the EU have regulatory restrictions regarding lycopene that we want to avoid. As Black Edition Powder is a wide-reaching product, we want to ensure it is aligned in different regions. Black Edition still contains several key phytonutrients including lutein, zeaxanthin and ferulic acid.
There are minimal changes to the nutritional profile and Black Edition Powder:
Contains 40g of protein
Includes probiotics
Is naturally gluten-free
Contains no artificial sweeteners
Is still nutritionally complete
Macro split is still exactly the same – 17:40:40:3 (carbohydrate, protein, fat, fibre)
We’ve listed the two ingredients we’ve removed - kombucha and lycopene. This, combined with insignificant tweaks to existing ingredients, hasn’t impacted the macros
As this product was created meticulously in the first place as is part of Huel’s story, you will have known the nutritional values of all your ingredients, including kombucha, so if it made a “minimal contribution” as is now claimed, why was it included in the first place?
This appears as a cost-saving exercise being fobbed off as “it didn’t really do much anyways, so don’t worry about it”. My understanding is that your product had already been through “extensive nutritional testing”, and every single ingredient was meticulously chosen and included to produce the “nutritionally complete meal” that we all know and love. If you can simply take ingredients out willy-nilly, and claim they made minimal contribution, then your original claims have to be brought into question.
What level of nutritional contribution did Lycopene make please, as this info is omitted from your statement? Lycopene is known as one of the most powerful natural antioxidants, so to have this taken out is a shame, especially when it’s simply due to red tape by a few EU regions. We are getting a lesser product now for the same price… unless of course you will be reducing the price?
James said that following more extensive nutritional testing they decided the contribution was minimal. I guess they didn’t know at the time. Huel has made a few wrong steps: too much salt, added fluoride etc. I guess it’s a learning process for them. That’s my take on it. Many/most food manufacturers revise their recipes from time to time. No doubt some of it is a cost saving exercise not just to improve nutritional profile. Perhaps Huel does this too.
I usually have a mix of Powder and Black Edition daily to get the variety of ingredients in BE. If kombucha is being removed and had minimal contribution anyway, I’ll stick with Powder now for simplicity and stop buying BE.
Once a full meal organic DG/Superblend type powder is released in the UK, I’ll buy that exclusively for all my daily meals besides dinner. Just hope there are a couple of flavours – DG tastes pleasant, but couldn’t stomach a full shake of it.
Marketing. Everyone knew it was useless and it was pointed out in many places. But clueless people read “komucha” and instantly reach for their wallet.
Superblend is a nutritionally complete powder Huel do that’s made entirely from whole foods, almost entirely organic, including a plant-based protein and superfood blend, organic superfruit blend, organic antioxidant greens blend, organic adaptogen and super mushroom complex, organic botanical blend, and probiotics.
If my understanding is correct, it’s essentially achieving the same thing as Huel Powder, but made from the above organic whole food ingredients so is more natural and even more healthy, but is only 250kcal. So my hope is that Huel are working on a full meal version (e.g. 400kcal) for the UK, which can be consumed several times a day like Powder, BE, etc.
The benefits are primarily that your nutritionally complete powder would be entirely from whole foods, and almost entirely organic, along with far more probiotics, adaptogens, etc. That’s the holy grail for me IMO. The final step away from some of the less natural ingredients currently in Huel 400kcal powders.
