I recently ordered Huel Black, and none of the bags (flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate, Banana) are labeled as gluten free anymore. This is very concerning to me, as I was very careful to make sure everything I ordered was gluten free for medical reasons.
Double checking just to make sure… the website still claims it’s gluten free, but the bag does not have a gluten free label. The bags of Huel “Original” do have a gluten free label on them… but Black definitely doesn’t. It does have “New and improved flavor” written on it though, so I can only conclude that they changed the product without updating the site. That is a terrible thing to do to people who gluten will make sick. And their “Digital Assistant” is utterly useless and infuriating, so that’s just makes me feel worse about it.
I don’t really know what else to say, but hopefully I can save anyone else from getting tricked by this by posting about it.
Welcome to the US Huel Forum, and so sorry for the confusion regarding the Black Edition’s gluten-free status!
I can assure you that our Black Edition Powder remains gluten-free. No recent changes have been made to the recipe.
I’ve just gotten back to you via email for more details on the labeling. Apologies for the delay–our Customer Experience Team is experiencing a high volume of contacts at the moment.
Okay, I’ve been struggling with responding to your request, because your request is insane. It’s asking me to explain/show something that is plainly evident if you looked into it for 1 minute, let alone were already a company that should know what’s going on with it’s products. But okay, here’s my attempt - I even put in the effort to make a bunch of pictures for you (oh wait, it won’t let me insert more than one picture. Guess I’ll have to split it up then…):
No, it is not gluten free. As in, the bag is not labeled as such, so legally it is not a gluten free product. If it (Huel Black) is still gluten free, why is the bag not labeled as gluten free?
Do I really have to provide pictures explaining this? Okay…
You’ve got “Gluten-free” prominently on the page selling it.
The only explanations for that are either Huel is trying to trick me, or is too incompetent to label products according to the FDA rules. Neither inspire trust in your product, especially when my health is very much on the line.
Just for kicks, I started looking at your other lines. Now that I look at the page for Hot&Savory I see it has the same problem. The page at first claims that the Mexican Chili is “Gluten-free”. But when you double check the pictures it doesn’t have gluten free on it! This isn’t an isolated problem.
Thank you for these details! I don’t always have product directly on hand and don’t work in the labeling or technical departments, so getting photos is very helpful. However, I preferred to see a photo of your bag specifically, as the labels can vary with the batch. The label from our website that you sent over, for instance, does not have the “New and improved flavor” tag on it:
I’ve reached out to our Quality Team to determine why the gluten-free symbol (as well as the B-Corp and Vegan Society certification symbols) might be absent from the Black Edition and the grains-based Hot & Savory meals. I will update you as soon as I hear back.
I definitely appreciate your caution until this is verified! However, I don’t think the reasoning is either incompetence or deceit.
In the meantime, the Nutrition Team has confirmed that nothing has changed regarding Black Edition’s gluten-free status, gluten-free being defined by the FDA as less than 20 ppm.
Small update here: the Quality Team will need the batch details on your bag to give you the best answer as to why there’s no gluten-free label, though the product is indeed gluten-free. You can find these under or beside the label. They will include the batch number (“FP4523 or something similar), the expiration date, and the time stamp. Feel free to just send a photo.
