Consumer Reports - Heavy Metals - Huel Full Response & Test Results

Hi all, I have already shared a response elsewhere, thanks again for your patience with that. I’ve started another thread here just so we can pin this, some of this copy pasted from my initial response and some of it is new information.

It is extremely important for you to know that Huel is safe to consume, but we are hearing your concern and know you want clarification. Here are the key points I want to share.

Huel meets UK, EU and the US gold standard NSF food safety standards.

• Independent lab tests consistently show our Black Edition lead levels range between 1.5–2.2 µg per serving - far below the UK daily limit of 135 µg and the EU benchmark of 270 µg and even the NSF value of 10 µg.
• NSF test on Black Edition showed lead was non-detectable under their testing threshold of 3.6ug, and cadmium was very low at 1.5µg per serving

The Consumer Reports study used an extremely cautious limit based on California’s Prop-65 – Their 0.5 µg per day threshold comes from California’s Proposition 65, which divides the observable effect level by 1,000 as an added safety buffer. It’s not an internationally recognised measure of risk.

Trace minerals like lead occur naturally in plants – Most adults consume 20–80 µg of lead daily from normal foods. Huel’s levels are comparable to a home-cooked meal and well within safe limits. Every batch is tested independently, and NSF certification confirms that Black Edition meets the highest global safety standards.

Huel has also recently been accredited by NSF, the gold standard for product safety and quality, and the most recent NSF report showed undetectable levels of lead. We have added a website article which has more detail and hosts the NSF Certification and the NSF test reports in full. 

Main article here - https://huel.com/pages/heavy-metals-in-protein-powders

Full test results here - https://huel.com/pdf/huel-nsf-test-report.pdf - for the main test report lead and cadmium are on page 3 at the bottom.

• Lead = ND(3.6) - this means that it was 'non-detectable' at their 3.6 µg tolerance 
• Cadmium = 1.5µg - this is incredibly low (the EU limit on food supplements is 1.0 mg/kg, which is 1000ug/kg, section 3.1.28 here)

Our testing is not just one-off though, we have done 17 tests in the last 3 years on Black Edition Powder alone and every result has been materially lower than the figures from Consumer Reports. These have all been done in independent, accredited laboratories - that means it is not conducted by us. 

Across those tests we range between 1.5–2.2 µg per serving, and we average at 1.8mcg per serving. Whereas Consumer Reports believe we are 6.3mcg.

As I said before, we really do know that seeing this is scary, no one likes the idea of consuming heavy metals. However, trace amounts of lead naturally occur in most foods grown in soil, from spinach to oats, particularly plant-based ingredients because they are grown in soil. Huel sits comfortably within international standards and is completely safe to consume. 

I appreciate you will all have questions, we will reply to as much as I can here.