From seaweed to algae: Soylent blames flour for making customers violently ill

Whitney Filloon of Eater writes tech bros everywhere – wait, what about tech sisters? What about talking about people who are barfing and not some hipster slang — had their dreams of a utopian future in which humans subsist solely on weird meal replacements dashed recently: Soylent halted sales of both its powdered beverage mix and its newer solid food bars after dozens of customers fell ill earlier this month.

jetsons-food-machineNow, as Bloomberg reports, the company says it’s identified the culprit that was causing all that nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea: algae — or more specifically, algal flour, which is made from dried pulverized algae and frequently used “as a vegan replacement for butter and eggs.”

The LA-based startup says it’s working on new versions of both its drink powder and bars that do not contain algal flour, set to be launched in early 2017. But the supplier of the algal flour, a company called TerraVia, denies that their product was the culprit — though as Bloomberg notes, an energy bar company called Honey Stinger also had customers report nausea and vomiting earlier this year after eating their product which contained an algae-based ingredient from TerraVia.

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About Douglas Powell

A former professor of food safety and the publisher of barfblog.com, Powell is passionate about food, has five daughters, and is an OK goaltender in pickup hockey. Download Doug’s CV here. Dr. Douglas Powell editor, barfblog.com retired professor, food safety 3/289 Annerley Rd Annerley, Queensland 4103 dpowell29@gmail.com 61478222221 I am based in Brisbane, Australia, 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time