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Meal replacement startup Huel brings its 200-calorie snack bars to the US
If you find yourself constantly without time to prepare food, there's a new "healthy" option when it comes to nutritional snacks. Huel, the British-equivalent of Soylent, is launching its snack bars in the US. Starting today, you can purchase the company's v3.1 snack bars through its website. They're available in two flavors, chocolate and salted caramel, with a single order of 30 bars priced at $62.22. You can also buy 30 bars for $56 if you sign up for Huel's subscription service. That works out to $2.07 and $1.87 per bar respectively.
Soylent launches 100-calorie 'mini-meal' bar
Soylent, the drink of choice for Silicon Valley bros with no time to eat, is launching a new line of snack bars. Known as Soylent Squared, the 100-calorie "mini-meal" bars are the first solid food offerings from the company since the disastrous launch of its meal replacement bars in 2016. Soylent halted sales of the bars after reports emerged they were making people sick.
Soylent's meal replacement drinks are coming to the UK
Soylent and its hugely divisive food replacement drinks will launch in the UK on Thursday. As BBC News reports, the Silicon Valley startup has swapped seven ingredients and tweaked some of the vitamin and mineral content to appease British regulators. We doubt it will taste hugely different to the version sold in the US, however. In the UK, Soylent will be sold in 12-bottle packs for £39.99 (roughly £3.33 per drink) through Amazon. By comparison, Huel -- an already established rival in the British Isles -- sells enough powdered food to whip up 28 meals for £45 online.
Soylent banned in Canada over nutritional requirements
Canadians: we hope you weren't basing your diet around Soylent. Rosa Foods chief Rob Rhinehart has posted a letter revealing that Soylent is effectively banned in the country after the Canada Food Inspection Agency determined that it didn't meet standards for a "meal replacement." The company doesn't believe the CFIA's rules are in line with the latest understanding of nutritional needs, but it's not about to fight the decision -- it's halting sales of Soylent until it can make officials happy.
Soylent sits alongside Slurpees at some 7-Elevens in LA
Good news if you're all about nutrition, but not a fan of actually eating while on the go: Soylent is now available at select 7-Eleven stores. The meal replacement substance was only sold on Amazon and the company's own website prior to this, and CEO Rob Rhinehart told The Verge that soon enough the 7-Eleven deal will go wider than the 18 stores in Los Angeles. Now that no one is getting sick off of algae powder (a previous ingredient) the company stands to make some pretty big inroads with the mass market.
Soylent relaunches its troubled powder, adds new drink flavors
Soylent had a pretty terrible 2016. After recalling its meal bars after reports of vomiting and diarrhea from its users, the company also had to withdraw its debut product: the powder used to make meal-substitute shakes. While Soylent relaunched the powder for sale online last week, the bars are still MIA. However, if you like your meals shapeless and mono-colored, the company has doubled down on its pre-made 'drink in a bottle' beverages, adding two new flavors. These drinks apparently didn't contain the algal flour that's suspected of causing all that tummy trouble.
Soylent partner cuts supply after shouldering blame for recall
Soylent supplier TerraVia really, really doesn't appreciate being blamed for making people sick. The nutrition company has suspended its ingredient supply out of a "high level of concern" that Soylent is perpetuating a "pattern of behavior" that hurts TerraVia's bottom line. Supposedly, Soylent didn't do enough research into gastrointestinal problems before blaming TerraVia's algal flour and removing it for the recently released Powder 1.7 meal. The food alternative firm didn't offer any evidence, TerraVia says, citing an industry expert who doubts that the flour (or any one ingredient) is the obvious cause.
Soylent blames product recalls on algae
It's been a tough few weeks for Soylent. After recalling its new food bars for giving customers vomiting and diarrhea, the startup ended up pulling its famous meal-substitute powder from shelves as well. The company said a handful of powder customers were reporting similar gastrointestinal issues to those causes by the bars. The problem was affecting less than 0.1 percent of all customers, but the complaints were obviously severe enough to halt all sales of two of the company's four product lines. At the time, Soylent noted that its tests came back negative for food pathogens, toxins or outside contamination, and also said that it only affected the most recent iteration of its powder. "This possible connection allows us to narrow the field considerably given there are only a few ingredients that are specific to only our bars and Powder 1.6," it said. Well, the culprit has been found: algae.
Soylent stops powder sales after making some people sick
Crafting a powder-based drink that can replace your entire diet, it turns out, is pretty darn difficult. Following a total recall of its food bars, Soylent has slammed the brakes on its flagship powder product too. The company says "a handful" of customers, or less than 0.1 percent, have experienced "stomach-related symptoms" similar to the ones reported by its snack bar users. (Those, if you need a reminder, include vomiting, diarrhoea and severe stomach pain.) Soylent is still looking for the root of the problem. Its previous powder formula, 1.5, appeared to be fine, so the company is narrowing its search to the ingredients specific to 1.6 and the bars.
Soylent recalls its food bars after making some customers sick
You probably shouldn't eat one of Soylent's recently-launched food bars. The company is halting sales, and recalling existing bars following reports of of customers getting sick after eating its latest future-food. People have reported feeling nauseous, vomiting and even diarrhea.
The best of Public Access Vol. 8: RIP Hitchbot, Hi Soylent
by08.06.2015
There's a reason your mom told you not to hitchhike -- it can be dangerous, even for friendly, harmless robot creations. This week, the internet mourned the loss of Hitchbot the hitchhiking robot, and started playing the finger-pointing game at some pranksters in Philly (who may or may not have prematurely ended Hitchbot's mission to get to San Francisco -- but apparently did fake the much-viewed video of the bot's demise). Photos of the busted bot quickly circulated, and while its creators have confirmed their experiments with AI and human interaction are not over, it does appear to at least be the end of the line for Hitchbot version one. Since the bot is officially RIP, why not write it a eulogy befitting its adventurous nature and expounding on its achievements?
ICYMI: Keurig-like cocktails, handmade holograms and more
try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-101414").style.display="none";}catch(e){} #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-101414{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-101414, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-101414{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-101414").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: We break down the lazy man's cocktail machine, filling your bellies with machine-crafted designer drinks for your boozehound friends. An Australian stunt rider rigged a dirtbike to surf the ocean and the video is pretty astounding. And while you wait for Microsoft's HoloLens, you can make a DIY hologram display with little more than a CD jewel case. Doesn't everyone have about 20 of them in the corners of cabinets, no matter how many you swear you've recycled?
Soylent 2.0 comes ready-made in bottles
The next version of Soylent is perfect for anyone who's been intrigued by the curiously named food replacement, but doesn't want to deal with mixing messy powders and storing pitchers of liquid. Soylent 2.0 is actually going to be pre-mixed and bottled, making it just as convenient as plenty other nutritional drinks out there, like Ensure. Each bottle has around 20 percent of your daily recommended values for vitamins and minerals, and the drink also has a low glycemic index of 49.2 (which means it won't shoot up your blood sugar). It also has a shelf life of one year and doesn't require refrigeration, so you could conceivably keep a few around your desk for when you can't make it out for lunch. Soylent 2.0 is clearly an attempt by Rosa Labs to make its hyped up meal replacement, which has been popular with techies, more palatable with mainstream consumers.
Soylent aims to make its nutritious sludge much cheaper than $3 a meal
Love it or hate it, the food replacement drink Soylent isn't going away anytime soon. The company is now planning to drive down the cost of its meals to "a fraction" of their current $3 price after banking an additional $20 million, according to investor Chris Dixon. Soylent was originally developed as an inexpensive and convenient way to consume vaguely healthy meals (it's made up of carbohydrates, proteins, and amino acids), and it quickly gained a loyal fan base. The only problem? It tastes like chalky pancake mix (with a dash of impending dystopia). It's also tough to get your hands on right now: You can snag around 21 meals for $70 a month (or an $85 one-time fee), but you'll have to wait four to five months for your order. Driving the price down to under $2 a meal (and hopefully increasing availability) is exactly what Soylent needs to do for normal folks to give it a shot.
