Why does Huel expire?

Does anyone know how it comes that mixed Huel supposedly expires so quickly (only after 24 hours according to the FAQ)? Does anyone have experience of consuming Huel several days (say 48/72 hours) after mixing it - were there any complications?

Thanks!

Would you eat porridge you made 24/48/72 hours ago? And, if not, why not?

Less fresh flavour but wouldn’t expect it to be unhealthy to eat it after 72 hours? I don’t regularly eat porridge so can’t relate to the comparison. Since you seem to be knowledgeable and find this obvious, please enlighten me?

Thanks!

Cut an apple in half and leave it for 24 hours. It starts to go bad. Make a cup of tea and leave it for 24 hours, it goes off.

After you’ve added liquid to your powdered Huel, milkshake mix, breakfast cereal, left your sausage sandwich out, cooked that chicken and left it for 24 hours it starts to break down.

Your Huel comes in a light proof sealed packet to make it last longer. Once you’ve taken it out and mixed it with water it’ll gradually start to break down, the vitamins will degrade, etc.

Thanks nickymoo, that was helpful! But would still say that chilled chicken (or sandwich for that sake or yogurt) that is left in the fridge in a sealed package (plastic bottle in this case) still remains fine to eat even after 48/72 hours?

Regarding the vitamin degrading, how quickly does that happen? Seems like C vitamin in orange juice takes a week to degrade to zero, which means that about 30% will be lost after 48 hours - not optimal…

The other micronutrients will degrade too, not just vitamin C.

If you leave it for a few two days its noticeably more slimy.

But eat away. It takes a whole minute to prepare a meal of it and I suppose most people have more than a minute a day free to prepare a meal.

Huel is essentially ground up food (peas, rice, flaxseed and so on). When good is exposed to air it can oxidise and go bad. When some food is exposed to a liquid is can go mouldy. Water can also make food break down, similar to how the stomach breaks down food. When it’s broken down it loses some of it’s nutritional value.

Add water (as you do to Huel) to ANY natural food and you will see that it starts to break down over 24 hours.

I think it’s great that Huel goes off quickly. Usually food that goes bad relatively quickly is generally quite natural.

Basically there are a few things that will cause food to go stale over time - oxygen, moisture, light, microbial growth, and temperature.

Water especially:

Microorganisms – microorganisms need water to dissolve the food they use. Water allows the food to get into bacterial, yeast and mold cells where it is used for energy and growth. Water also allows waste products to escape from the cells.
Chemical Reactions – the moisture in food also functions to allow chemical reactions to occur between components in the product.

http://www.foodsafetysite.com/educators/competencies/general/spoilage/spg1.html

To be safe I would stick to the guidelines :slight_smile:

I have consumed Huel after around 60 hours after prep with no side effects and it tasted fine…it had been stored in a fridge…and I have eaten Huel that had been left in a very hot car for about 5 hours (that was really horrible…I guess it had started to cook, and it had almond milk in it), I don’t know what the loss of micronutrients would have been. in either case
Generally speaking I eat Huel between 12 and 24 hours after prep.

On a slightly less sciency note, I’ve noticed that Huel kept out on the counter for 24 hours starts smelling very yeasty. Didn’t try to taste it. So I guess it starts to ferment a bit.