So I have just been looking out the thread from August “Worms in my Huel bars” as I now too have Indianmeal moth larvae in my kitchen. I haven’t seen any moths and I have now found around 50 of them. I’ve just had a new kitchen fitted in the last month so all the cupboards are new and clean.
Most of the larvae I’ve found have been in the cupboard where I keep my Huel or have been making their way from there across the ceiling. Apart from Huel there is only tinned soups, fruit pouches and protein powders from MyProtein in the cupboard. All of these foods have been in my house for months. I hadn’t seen the moth larvae at all until I put the pouches from my last Huel delivery in the cupboard. My last delivery was 28th September. Whilst my kitchen was being fitted I kept the Huel pouches in the delivery packaging in my lounge. I unpacked it into the new cupboards on 18th October. I first saw the larvae on 23rd October on the door of the cupboard. I haven’t put any new food in this cupboard until the Huel delivery. It’s my contingency cupboard of soups mainly, and nothing else since. Literally only the Huel delivery. Some of the pouches are still unopened. Should I parcel up the whole delivery and send it back for checking?
Like I said, it’s possibly a coincidence, but the Huel pouches are the only new food going into a brand new kitchen cupboard and the rest of the food in there is either sealed tins or pouches I’ve had for months. When I figured out where the larvae were coming from and emptied everything out of the cupboard and scrutinised it, I found most of the larvae on the Huel pouches (4-5 on each). I’m happy to send back the entire delivery so you can check it. I have picked off and squashed all the larvae I’ve found but they are definitely Indianmeal moth larvae. They look exactly like the picture below.
I’ve read quite a few posts now and this is the first one that has ever made me genuinely consider not wanting to use huel.
Is this really a thing could they be contaminated with moth larvae?
I don’t know. That’s why I have titled it possibly a coincidence. Just seems odd it’s a brand new cupboard, I’ve never had an issue before, haven’t seen any moths and the only other food in that cupboard is a nearly empty BCAA powder pouch, tins or unopened Delmonte pouches of sliced peaches I’ve literally had for months in previous cupboards in the kitchen with no issues. The moth larvae have only appeared since I unpacked that delivery into my brand new kitchen. That’s why I’m suggesting sending back the delivery to check. The fact that it appears they are the same type of larvae that were found in someone’s Huel bars in August makes me concerned. On that occasion it was established they also found other foodstuff in their kitchen was affected so I don’t think it was ever definitely identified where the original source came from. I’m raising it because it’s a brand new kitchen, I haven’t seen any moths, the only other food in that cupboard is in tins or foil pouches (soup and fruit in syrup so unlikely to be a source of food for a meal moth larvae) and it was the Huel pouches that I saw most of the larvae on. It’s also the only new food item that has been put in the cupboard just before I saw the larvae.
Strangely bright yellow artificial flavouring stains white packaging when you spill it on it. So no, that isn’t “dirty”. But hey, go ahead and be insulting about my imagined crap hygiene and dirty state of my kitchen. It’s fun to randomly insult strangers on the internet. I guess you missed the fact I already mentioned it’s a brand new kitchen which I only unpacked stuff into on the 18th October. At which point I washed down all of the new cupboards inside and out before I put anything in them.
Personally I’m slightly more concerned that the food I bought might be contaminated.
She has a point though, maybe wipe down the bags, they could possibly be attracted to flavour drop stains
But that doesn’t explain where they’ve come from in the first place. Let’s see what the team have to say. I really hope it’s not the bags.
Fair enough.
My worst fear is that huel reply to you saying sorry that came from our facility we’ll replace that for you.
I think I would cancel my subscription.
I’m eagerly awaiting their response to your thread
I have sent both Dan and Tim a DM with my order number and the batch numbers of all the pouches (5 x premix and one flavour boost). I’m away on a business trip again from tomorrow morning so won’t be able to send back the delivery until Friday at the earliest. They will need some time to check so I suspect it will be a while.
I was also away last week from Monday until Thursday evening and it was a bit of a shock to come back and find about 20 little caterpillars scattered around my kitchen. Took me a while to figure out where they were coming from as they had spread out quite a bit and it was only when I took everything out of every cupboard that I found most of them on the Huel pouches. Quite a few had nestled in the folds underneath or at the side of the bag so it took a while to spot them all. I’m now worried where else they’ve managed to migrate to. I haven’t found any in any of the other cupboards. Only two other cupboards have food in. One has flour, pasta and other baking stuff and one has coffee. There haven’t been any larvae on, in or near either of those that I’ve seen.
Just wanted to say sorry again that you’ve had to go through all this stress with a newly fitted kitchen, whatever the cause.
We will of course look into this for you, more details are in the reply to your message.
I will just clarify that the thread from August was determined not to be due to a Huel Product, this was clear cut and confirmed by our own tests and the customer.
We have loads of safety and quality checks in place which you can see some of here but we will always take any potential issues seriously.
I know this may sound like sweeping the problem under the rug but I would ask in future that people do not post these sort of things on the public Huel forum. It creates a lot of panic and distress for other customers which may be unfounded. I know where this is coming from if I saw similar photos of products I own it would put me off even if I knew there were no issues with them. Drop us a DM or message to our Customer Experience team and we will handle it in exactly the same way and if the problem is sourced to be at Huel we will make it public. However let me just reiterate, the last few posts on the forum have found not to be an issue with processing, manufacturing or the ingredients of Huel Products.
Those damn moths are the worst!
In fairness though I think it is unlikely that the huel bags got to you contaminated, they are pretty airtight, a sealed bag is not a very welcoming environment for the larvae. I would assume they got inside the bag once you opened it because they love the stuff, as any flour etc etc. And it is very easy to get them in any kitchen no matter how clean, they are moths, they fly. How many bags do you keep open at once? My advice would be to start afresh with new bags, check any other foodstuffs that could be hosting larvae (in my house they go for couscous like addicts) and find a way to keep your opened bags airtight, glass jars perhaps?
I have checked all three food cupboards and everything in them. Two of the three I found nothing. No moths, no larvae, no cocoons. Only one cupboard, the one with the Huel, had over 20 larvae. I still have seen no moths anywhere in my flat either dead or alive. The Huel cupboard has only Huel, tins of soup, beans or tomatoes, glass jars of almond butter, glass jars of gravy granules and unopened foil pouches of sliced peaches in syrup. No other food or containers at all. The kitchen was newly fitted from an empty bare plastered room between 30th September and 18th October. All of the new cupboards were vacuumed out and all surfaces washed down before I put anything in them. The only new food I have put in that cupboard is the Huel delivery. That is the only area I’ve seen larvae. Most of the larvae were on the Huel pouches, both unopened and the 3 I had open. I’m at a loss as to where they came from. At the moment the Huel seems the most plausible source but I don’t know which is why I’m sending the delivery back to be checked. I don’t buy cereals, oats or grains as I don’t eat breakfast. I also have a rice allergy so don’t buy that either and I’m not a fan of stuff like quinoa or couscous. Other than Huel the only dry flour like substances I have in the flat are flour, cornflour and sugar for baking. My baking cupboard is on the other side of the kitchen and is larvae free. I’ve checked everything in there and there has been nothing anywhere near it. Same with my coffee cupboard. I don’t buy bread either as it goes off before I get a chance to eat it.
Speculation is pretty pointless at this point. I’ll send back the delivery when I’m home on Friday and see what they find (if anything)
@Liath were all the larvae on the outside of the bags?
Or were any inside?
If only on the outside this suggests it’s a very recent infestation, and they haven’t had time to burrow through the packaging yet. Maybe they could have been in / gotten into the cardboard packaging ??
Sorry. I’m speculating. Like you said - pointless… but it’s hard not to.
I’m guessing (yes I know - it’s as pointless as speculating but I’m gonna do it anyway) that if it was an infestation at the Huel factory or in the cardboard packaging, then we would all be infested.
Darn annoying for you.
It is possible though that some eggs were laying around those old tins (only time I’ve ever found those damn moths were bizarrely on the tops of tins that had been in my cupboard for years) and maybe they hatched out when put next to the Huel.
I think the paper around the tins is what attracts the moths to lay eggs there but of course while it’s just tins, the larvae can’t thrive as there’s nothing to eat.
I’d suggest ripping all the paper labels off the old tins and jars, washing them down and then writing what’s in them with a sharpie.
Just so you’ve covered every possibility!
I haven’t opened 4 of the 5 premix pouches. There were larvae on the outside of all of them. Couldn’t see any inside the mint choc which was the one I’d opened, or in the Rhubarb and Custard flavour boost which was the only other package in the recent delivery I’d opened. There was one larvae in the ziplock part of the banana flavour boost which was open from the previous order. No moths or moth remains anywhere - either in the old cupboards when they were ripped out or in the new cupboards, or in or near any of the packaging which makes me think the eggs came in on the packaging.
Who knows. I’ll wait and see.
I just can’t help thinking it’s odd I haven’t seen a single moth, just larvae which makes me think it’s come in as eggs on something recently.
Yeah definitely. So annoying.
Especially with a nice new clean kitchen.
I suppose another possibility is the kitchen fitters… they don’t put in new kitchens they also pull out old ones and could easily have eggs on their clothes / tools / dust sheets from another property.
Workmen are nortoriously bad at reusing dirty dust sheets and virtually none of them ever wipe their tools down.
But then you wiped all the cupboards before putting anything in… but I suppose the eggs can get transferred easily about the home.
I hate an unanswered mystery. I hope you discover the source!
Hopefully it will be easy enough to get rid of them all seeing as you don’t stock any other food stuffs they would want to feast on
I’ve read quite a few posts now and this is the first one that has ever made me genuinely consider not wanting to use huel.
seeing as you don’t stock any other food stuffs they would want to feast on