I’m wondering why Huel would decide to add Cyanocobalamin to their product?
We know this is a toxic ingredient right?
There are a lot of legacy discussions on this and why it is used - if you search the forum you will find many threads with answers from the Huel nutrition team over the years.
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We use cyanocobalamin in our powders because other forms of vitamin B12 such as methylcobalamin are not stable in food products over shelf life. Whilst methylcobalamin may be more bioactive once it’s been absorbed, cyanocobalamin is absorbed by the body more readily. Even if we wanted to use methylcobalamin, it’s actually not permitted for use in food fortification in Europe because of its poor stability (it’s only permitted for use in supplements, like Daily Greens).
Structurally, cyanocobalamin does indeed contain a cyanide group within the molecule. I understand this seems alarming off the bat, but only because cyanide is widely known for being used as a poisoning agent in very high doses. Cyanide naturally occurs in lots of foods, famously in apple pips, but also in almonds, soy, spinach and pears to name a few others. Consuming these foods regularly for years is not associated with cyanide poisoning, nor is consuming cyanocobalamin supplements.
It’s hard to say the exact amount of cyanide in cyanocobalamin supplements but even high doses (1000mcg) suggests as little as 20mcg. There’s 0.8mcg of vitamin B12 in a serving of Huel. To put it into perspective, the tolerable daily intake (TDI) for cyanide established by the World Health Organization (WHO) is 0.05mg per kilogram of body weight. Therefore, a dose of 0.8mcg (0.0008mg) of cyanocobalamin, which is a commonly recommended amount for B12 supplementation, is significantly lower than the TDI for cyanide and poses no significant risk to health.
The most alarming part of this is how badly cyanocobalamin reacts with tin foil. The two should never mix, or if they do there needs to be a vaccine.
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