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Health Watchdog To Bring Legal Action Against Soylent Over Lead, Cadmium Levels

An anonymous reader writes: We've previously discussed Soylent, the self-proclaimed "meal replacement." The product has not been without controversy, and now it's likely to see some more: As You Sow, a non-profit foundation dedicated to corporate responsibility, plans to bring legal action against Soylent for failing to provide sufficient warning about the amount of lead and cadmium in it. They allege that a serving of Soylent contains 12 to 25 times the concentration of lead at which point consumers in the state of California must be warned. The concentration of cadmium, they say, is four times the current maximum. Soylent has acknowledged the results of heavy metal tests but says the levels present in Soylent are not toxic. As You Sow maintains that Soylent's marketing focus on replacing food suggests chronic exposure, which is more of an issue than an occasional indulgence.

4 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. why not eat dog kibble? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why not eat dog kibble? I mean that is what this stuff is, "human" dog kibble.

    Good luck on your bringing your date over to your flat for dinner as well. Especially when she asks you what is for dinner and you bust out your soylent. That is when your date laughs at you, goes across the road to the bar and finds a man that you know, can actually cook a meal.

    There is no reason to eat this garbage, learn how to prepare a meal for yourself. I know your mother never let you near the stove until you were 25 or something, but now is the time to learn how to use a kitchen knife as well as vi and stop over processed poisons.

  2. But this is California, so of course it's stupid by Kludge · · Score: 2, Insightful

    but they set exposure limits for a reason.

    These are based on "exposure limits" set by the state of California. California requires warnings about metal concentrations on virutally ALL FOOD, making these warnings stupid and useless. Read the related links and you will learn something.

  3. Re:But this is California, so of course it's stupi by smallfries · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People do not respond to constant reminders - they blank them out as irrelevant background noise. As such they are then more useless than appropriate warnings. As an example: there are no foods in the UK that are not labeled "may contain traces of nuts".

    --
    Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
  4. Re: As a chemist, I have something to say. by by+(1706743) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Raising a dimensional quantity to a power doesn't always make sense -- since [whateverthefuck] = [micrograms/serving], [whateverthefuck^9] = [something silly].

    And if you want to do this as relative amount (0.1 meaning ten percent, etc.), then raising it to the ninth power makes it smaller, which isn't exactly what you intended.

    The More You Know...