Soylent puts powder on pause after making people sick
Meal-replacement brand Soylent stops shipping its flagship powder to consumers after some reported getting sick.
The meal-replacement start-up and Silicon Valley culture poster-child, Soylent has announced that it will stop shipping its food powder after receiving complaints that customers are getting sick.
Soylent comes in a powdered form that can be mixed with water.
Soylent became famous for creating a meal-replacement powder that purports to provide people with 100 percent of their daily nutritional needs in a convenient "just add water" powdered form. However, the most recent formula, Powder 1.6, has allegedly resulted in gastrointestinal issues for some consumers. This is not the first time a Soylent product has been linked to stomach problems. Recently, the Soylent Bar was recalled after some people reported getting violently ill. Now that the company's flagship powder has also been associated with customer sickness, Soylent has to figure out the root of the problem so its image isn't tarnished.
The Soylent Bar and Powder 1.6 are expected to become available again in Q1 of 2017. Soylent says it did not receive these types of complaints with its Powder 1.5, so it's picking apart the formula to see what could have caused these issues. Although the number of affected users is small in scale (roughly 0.1 percent), Soylent is erring on the side of caution.
Other products that Soylent produces like Soylent Drink and Coffiest have not received similar complaints.
"If you have used Powder 1.6 without incident, we see no reason to stop enjoying it." Soylent states in its blog post. "But if you have had any sensitivities, we suggest discarding whatever is left and letting us know at info@soylent.com."