I’ve just opened a ready to drink huel that someone gave me to try, and it’s okay but a bit sickly and tastes a bit odd. Not bad bad odd, but I only managed to drink half.
It says on the bottle to keep refrigerated after opening and consume within 12 hours. But will it last longer than that do you think?
If I keep it in the fridge will it last up to 24hrs maybe?
The powder huel lasts 24 hrs when made and kept in the fridge.
Why would the RTD go off faster?
Yeah, stored in the fridge it will last a few days.
@hunzas
A few days?? Even once opened?
Have you tried it yourself?
Or are you trying to make me a guinea pig? 
Just be aware that @hunzas sees a best before date as a challenge.
Yes, a few days once opened. No, I haven’t tried it myself, but I can assure you from a health point of view, if resealed and refrigerated it will be absolutely fine.
Yes, I do. I think that best before dates are over cautious and lead to unnecessary food wastage. Food left past their use by dates will lose a little of their nutritional value…some vitamins more than others for example, but are still fine to eat. Food manufacturers are always cautious as they have no control over what consumers do with their products, and may shove it in a swampy fridge that has never been cleaned and temperature control is not working correctly. I eat out of date products regularly (who wants to come round for tea?), and have never been sick. I’d be more cautious of some dairy products (but I don’t eat dairy at all).
A best before though is the point at which the product won’t taste as good as it did when it was new. I have drank a vanilla RTD which was 1 day before its best before and it was only just drinkable from a taste point of view but I didn’t feel ill after it. A consumer shouldn’t throw something away just because it’s exceeded the best before. Generally dairy type products will have a use by and going too far past that is likely to lead to being sick.
A couple of weeks ago I drank a Vanilla RTD with a BB date of June 2019. Couldn’t taste a difference, and my tastebuds are pretty good. I still have another which I will drink at some point. Maybe not for a few weeks…
The one I drank I gave to a friend to try who instead of drinking it stored it in her car for months during the summer. That may have had an effect on why it tasted off.
Ahh, you were missing some vital information from your original post.
The unopened bottle I gave to a friend had been stored for 10 years in Chernobyl from May 1986 to May 1996. It tasted a bit funny, then her hair and teeth fell out. I just told her it must have been the dodgy kebab she ate later that day.
I’ve just finished off the chocoberry RTD I mixed yesterday lunchtime and it tasted the same 
So still good after 24hrs
During my time as a student I worked at two different food factories - one a chocolate factory and another that supplied sliced processed meats for various supermarkets. Both made me somewhat sceptical about use by and best before dates.
At the chocolate factory I worked over the summer holidays and spent most of July and August making Easter eggs for the following Easter that had best before dates 18 months after manufacture.
At the meat processing factory it was fairly common practice if a pallet didn’t go out for distribution to the supermarket on the scheduled day that the boxes would be opened and every packet relabelled with a new use by date two days later than the original label. This was because the contract with the supermarket stated that they would receive it x number of days before the use by date as they required a certain shelf life.
Since then I’ve always relied on what my senses are telling me rather than throw food out. If it looks okay, smells okay and tastes okay it’s probably fine. Even stuff like bread or cheese with a bit of mould can be fine if you cut away the mouldy bits.
Shame to waste perfectly good food.
I forgot which topic I was reading and thought you were about to recommend mixing chocolate Huel with meat.
I reckon you’d absolutely need a blender. Shaken bacon ain’t gonna work.
Much as I am someone who loves challenging best before dates, that is not necessarily the case; some of the deadliest toxins in out of date food cannot be smelled or tasted.
Yes, definitely. You need to be more careful with soft cheeses though. They can be icky.
Anyone want to take up the challenge of testing a 5kg bag of brown basmati rice that went out of date in 2015?
I can’t bring myself to chuck it out.
I also can’t bring myself to risk eating it…
Hence the inclusion of the word “probably” in my statement. 
I take absolutely no responsibility for anyone succumbing to deadly toxins by eating out of date food. But then if they do they are hardly likely to come back here and complain to me about it so 
Seriously though, an awful lot of people unnecessarily waste perfectly good food because they blindly rely on best before or use by dates (or don’t know the difference between the two) rather than exercising some judgement. Case in point this week, I did my shopping for the week and ended up going for dinner with a friend instead of cooking what I’d bought on Wednesday. The chicken breast I had intended to cook was labelled use by 14th August but was perfectly fine when I cooked it the day after.
I’d say use some common sense but alas I’m well aware there’s no such thing!
I’m game…
Back to the original topic of opened RTD in the fridge…
I kept some of yesterday’s lunch RTD until midnight today, so 36hrs in total since opening (refrigerated immediately after opening, and my fridge stays at a constant 2 degrees).
It smelled fine. Tasted fine. Texture also fine.
I couldn’t tell it had been open so long - seemed perfectly fresh to me.
I do have a stomach ache though after drinking it, which came on after just a few minutes. That’s unusual for me - I don’t get stomach aches often.
Might not be the Huel but seems an odd coincidence.
I reckon in the future I will leave it a maximum of 24hrs opened. It was still fine after 24hrs.
Interestingly, the powder also is fine mixed and refrigerated up to 24 hours, but much longer than that and it starts to go a bit sour.
So… @Monkiey I’d say 24hrs for both powder and RTD once opened as long as it’s kept in the fridge.
How did you get on with yours ?
@ChristinaT I drank the rest of mine about 6pm. I can’t remember now what time I opened it yesterday but I think it was about 5/6pm.
I already didn’t like the taste lol which is why I could only drink half yesterday, so I can’t comment on whether it tasted okay after being open lol. But I didn’t die. So I think 24 hours open is okay like you say 
I did always find it incredibly suspicious that the use-by date for chocolate in advent calendars would only be until the end of November the next year…Ever since i figured that out i always buy mine in January when they are all on sale.
@MissPelled and you manage to keep it a whole 11 months ???
This. Does. Not. Compute. In. My. Brain 
Chocolate doesn’t even last 11 seconds in my house…