This seems to go against Huel’s previous (and still current in the UK) stance on Maltodextrin. Powder 1.0 did not contain Maltodextrin (or at least such a small amount they aren’t required to list it). I was super excited to receive my first 2 boxes of ready-to-drink Huel this weekend only to find Maltodextrin as the 3rd ingredient. Now i see the powder 1.1 also contains it (not quite as high on the list). I switched from another popular brand because of issues it was causing with blood sugar. I’ve had zero issues with powder 1.0 after extended use.
Excerpt below from the above page on Huel’s site. This particular section looks to be the same on both the US and UK sites. If you look at the nutrition information on the US site located higher on the page or look at labels from products you received you will see this has changed with the new versions. Version number for the powder is located on the bottom of the nutrition label by the logo. V1.0 and more on the left and V1.1 they have moved it over to the right.
"Fine Powdered Oats for Carbohydrates and More
The carbs in Huel are from ultra-fine powdered oats. Oats have been shown to have a low glycemic index (GI); GI refers to how long it takes between ingesting a carb source to the resulting rise in blood sugar and, hence, energy levels. The oats in Huel mix easily and help sustain energy levels until the next meal. Many of the formulas used in sports nutrition or for weight reduction use maltodextrin as the main carb source. Maltodextrin is cheap and easy to mix, so there’s a valid reason for its use. However, although it’s a ‘complex’ carb, it actually has a high GI, so these formulas provide a surge of energy followed by a slump: far from ideal for busy people with active jobs. Maltodextrin is also a synthetic carb, so provides nothing more than carbohydrate for energy. The oat powder in Huel has been milled so fine that it’s readily soluble and there’s also not a huge price difference from maltodextrin. Plus, as oats are natural, they provide so much more than just carbohydrate: many vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients too. Indeed, it could be said that the inclusion of oat powder is one of the main reasons why Huel could be considered superior to many foods readily consumed today."
Looking at where maltodextrin appears in the list of ingredients in the USA version, I would bet it’s being used as the carrier for the vitamin and mineral blend. So I doubt there is much in there.
The USA website says tapioca maltodextrin and the UK website says tapioca starch. I may be wrong, but I think it’s an error and should say tapioca starch on the USA website.
Thanks for raising both these valid points. I was actually expecting them to be raised, but on the US forum, not the UK one. (Out of interest, why did you raise them here?)
1) RTD 'Tapioca Maltodextrin’
The US and UK formulas for Huel Ready-to-drink are exactly the same and made, currently, in the same place. What is in there is tapioca starch. However, US labelling requirements mean we have to label it as ‘Tapioca Maltodextrin’, whereas in the EU we can label as ‘Tapioca Starch’. It is not maltodextrin the the same form as normal maltodextrin and is not produced in the same way. I don’t know why US labelling requires it to be labelled this way and I have asked an expert and she didn’t know either. it’s frustrating.
Either way, we have had the GI of Huel Ready-to-drink tested and it’s low GI at 25. Read more here.
2) New US Powder v1.1
The carrier for the US vitamin mineral blend is indeed maltodextrin whereas the carrier for UK/EU powder is mainly coconut flour. Our aim was to have coconut flour as the carrier in this new US version too. However, our vitamin mineral supplier wouldn’t pass the raw material from two possible suppliers as they claimed there was a risk of microbial spoilage in their overly-strict onboarding process. The facility where the EU vitamin mineral blend is produced in France raised this as a potential issue but still found it acceptable to pass. Of course, we test both the raw material and final product Huel in our strict quality procedures in both the EU and US (read more here), and there is absolutely no microbial issue. So this is the reason why we had to use maltodextrin as the carrier. However, the amount of maltodextrin used in the vitamin mineral blend is tiny and works out at less than 0.2% of Huel - is this really an issue? We don’t yet have a GI test result for v1.1 US Huel (the trial is happening but takes a few weeks), but as the formula from a macronutritional perspective is very similar to EU v2.3, I’m confident it will still be around 27 (low). I really see no issue being concerned about any tiny amount of maltodextrin here.
Thanks
(UK folk - if the links don’t work (as I used the US URLs), click Guides and Articles and you’ll find the relevant articles)
I don’t think there’s any maltodextrin in the EU/UK powder. As James pointed out, the tiny amount of maltodextrin in the US powder is as a carrier for the vitamin complex, whereas the UK version uses coconut flour instead
Thank you for this informative response. I do apologize for posting this on the wrong forum. I just did a search for Huel forum and thought this was the right one. I didn’t see the language/country selector like the regular site and didn’t see uk. in the address so I assumed that it covered both. This does make me feel better about giving it a try. That GI is roughly half of what the other brand was that I had issues with after extended use.
