I was looking at the flavors for UK and found the professional edition. Huel Professional is dedicated to people who get routinely drug tested. Huel Professional is Huel Powder that is batch-tested for banned substances. Why is this necessary? Does the US version have drugs in it occasionally?
From what I know about WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and competitive sports - the list of things that they consider “performance enhancing” and test for is RIDICULOUS. “Banned Substances Tested” labelling on products such as protein powder is common and something that athletes often look for because you can fail a drug test from basic protein powders, supplements and even ordinary food and drink.
If you’re not a competitive athlete that has to abide by WADA regulations, you don’t have anything to worry about.
But if Huel is just food, why wouldn’t all of their products be safe for professional athletes? The implication here is that if a professional athlete consumes the huel in my kitchen, he might fail a drug test… I’m not okay with that lol.
What ordinary food and drink has banned substances in it?
You would be surprised.
Here is the extensive list of things that professional athletes have to beware of:
I’m guessing, too, that having it tested/certified not to contain any banned substances is just extra assurance (and does not necessarily imply that regular Huel contains banned substances, rather, that the “professional” version is guaranteed not to and has been tested).
This is from WADA’s Q&A:
"### 1. ARE DIETARY/NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS SAFE TO TAKE?UP
Extreme caution is recommended regarding dietary/nutritional supplement use.
The use of dietary supplements by athletes is a serious concern because in many countries the manufacturing and labeling of supplements do not follow strict rules, which may lead to a supplement containing an undeclared substance that is prohibited under anti-doping regulations. A significant number of positive tests have been attributed to the misuse of supplements and attributing an Adverse Analytical Finding to a poorly labeled dietary supplement is not an adequate defense in a doping hearing.
The risks of taking supplements should be weighed against the potential benefit that may be obtained, and athletes must appreciate the negative consequences of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation as a result of taking a contaminated supplement.
Use of supplement products that have been subjected to one of the available quality assurance schemes can help to reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of an inadvertent doping infringement."
This is an older article, but it highlights some of the issues. Zero tolerance for clenbuterol, which is sometimes found in meat:
There is a thread about this on the UK forum linked here and Tim addresses the exact question you ask! @KellyMc has also provided a great resource about WADA.
To give a brief idea here, basically, there is a requrement for batches to be tested in order to be approved as Tim explains, but this does not mean that our product contains banned substances.
I reached out to our team to also confirm about manufacturing sites in the US. Our team confirmed that our manufacturers in the US process food, not dietary supplements, so they would not handle WADA banned substances. However, they are not batch tested like Huel Professional, which is required to be approved.
Our team is checking on the site that produces the peanut flavor (as it is separate to our other powders) to confirm they process food and not dietary supplements, as well, and I will get back to you on this one as soon as I hear from them!
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yeahhh hehehe we are all twacked out in the states on Huel 
