The truth about Canada’s Soylent ban.

Interesting this, and thanks to /u/runrvs for helping pull back the curtain on exactly what happened to cut off Canadian’s Soylent supply. We covered this previously and as we understood at the time, fat content was likely to blame.

Seems that was only part of the problem. In a reddit post sharing a 74 page pdf received from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, we learn a little more about what’s going on, and there’s quite a lot.

Highlights appear to be…

1. Fat content too high
2. Vitamin amounts based on RDI, not on meal replacement regulations (noting that this may largely be a result of meal replacement regulations assuming fewer servings per day)
3. Phosphorous not present/declared
4. Linoleic acid content not present/declared
5. Protein quality not validated
6. Caffeine not permitted as an additive (“Cafe Chai”)
7. Sucralose not permitted as an additive
8. Miscellaneous labelling issues.

(thanks to?/u/TLUL for digging through to find those). Dave over at FutureFoods has a great write up that’s well worth reading.

With this detail out in view we now know one thing: There won’t be a quick fix.

Changing labelling is easy enough, and adjusting vitamins and mineral levels to hit recommended serving amounts may be as simple as adjusting serving volume, but the?presence of sucralose (a non-permitted food additive in ‘meal replacements’) is going to mean reformulation, which is clearly no small thing for Soylent to achieve (though it’s worth noting that Huel has more than one formulation to hit RDI’s in different markets, so it’s doable).

All in all, a great post to read if you’re missing Soylent and living in Canada.