Slashdot Mirror


Soylent Halts Sale of Bars; Investigation Into Illnesses Continues (arstechnica.com)

Beth Mole, reporting for ArsTechnica:Following online reports of customers becoming ill after eating Soylent's new snack bars, the company announced this afternoon that it has decided to halt all sales and shipments of the bars as a precautionary measure . The company is urging customers to discard remaining bars and will begin e-mailing customers individually regarding refunds. In a blog announcing the decision, the company said it is still investigating the cause of bouts of illnesses of customers linked to the bars, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. "After hearing from our customers, we immediately began investigating the cause of the issue and whether it was linked to a problem with the Bars," the company said. "So far we have not yet identified one and this issue does not appear to affect our other drinks and powder. Though our investigation into this matter continues, we have decided to err on the side of caution and take this preventative step."

36 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. oops by Cederic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clever company name can only backfire in cases like this.

    1. Re:oops by imatter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Exactly!!! who the F@#$ is going to eat something from a company called Soylent.

    2. Re:oops by tripleevenfall · · Score: 2

      Rosa Labs is... Soylent!

    3. Re:oops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Clever company name can only backfire in cases like this.

      Yes, but how does it taste?

      "It varies from person to person"

    4. Re:oops by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

      Exactly!!! who the F@#$ is going to eat something from a company called Soylent.

      Hmm...perhaps this is a case of Mad Human Disease....

      ;)

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    5. Re:oops by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why not? Soylent GREEN was made out of people. The other types of soylent weren't.

      So, what was soylent brown made from?

      On second thought, I don't want to know.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    6. Re:oops by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Mine tastes funny.
      Oh look, the box says "May contain clowns".

  2. Interesting... by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If they are being honest in their statement, then I'm impressed to see a company in this day and age take such steps. However the cynical side of me wonders if they knew/know what's happening and they're attempting damage control until they figure out what to do next.

    1. Re:Interesting... by HideyoshiJP · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Every food company does this now. In fact, most companies that make things you ingest follow the example of Tylenol when dealing with product issues. Nobody wants that bad juju when their business is selling things you put inside your body.

    2. Re:Interesting... by Joce640k · · Score: 2

      they're attempting damage control until they figure out what to do next.

      It's not as if they can change the recipe. There's only one source of the main ingredient.

      --
      No sig today...
    3. Re:Interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      If they are being honest in their statement, then I'm impressed to see a company in this day and age take such steps. However the cynical side of me wonders if they knew/know what's happening and they're attempting damage control until they figure out what to do next.

      Your cynicism is misplaced. Having worked in the packaged food industry before, voluntary recalls happen quite a bit and never make headlines as food is tested all the way down the supply chain. The tests include both on the spot testing and a sample taken, stored, and tested later to replicate the entire life cycle of the product and see what's happening. If the follow up sample test fails, the batch is recalled even if it's taken off the shelf at the grocery store.

      Food scares still happen and occasionally they slip through the system. But it happens 20 times for every one time you hear about it in the news, but the company catches it before it's ready to be sold and distributed. Many companies are quite good at this, but that's not going to make the news so you'll never hear about it.

  3. It's made of PEOPLE! by pecosdave · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's what makes them sick!

    --
    The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
  4. Marketing opportunity by HBI · · Score: 2, Informative

    Rebrand the bars as laxatives!

    I actually ate through a box of these bars not long ago - finished the last one about two weeks ago. I kept blaming my daughter for not washing the dishes correctly and giving me dysentery via food debris (this actually happens, at least the food debris part). But maybe it was the bars? Who knows - I never will, now.

    The bars are too caramel tasting anyway. I was really hoping for a bar that tasted like Soylent - like almost nothing at all.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    1. Re:Marketing opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Yes, when we finally eliminate all flavor from food it will be humanity's finest hour.

    2. Re:Marketing opportunity by HBI · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If I want flavored food, i'll choose to eat something actually good - like cooked by a human who cares about the taste - rather than some prepackaged thing that is optimized for long term storage.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    3. Re: Marketing opportunity by HBI · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I see why you posted this AC.

      6'7" (200cm) and 260 lbs (118kg/18.5 stone). I could stand to lose 20 pounds or so. I'm an insulin dependent diabetic and have been for over 25 years. I care about what I eat a lot. Proteins and fats work better than carbs. I do not have time for food preparation most of the time. I travel a lot. I've long ago weaned myself off of 'taste' as a requirement for food - if nothing else, the diabetes enforces that with requirements that I would prefer not to eat. I just have to feed the body. Soylent is a least evil option considering my constraints, allowing precise calorie control to match my insulin dosing without crappy artificial flavors, like just about every other similar product out there. I'd just eat it if I had my way. Keeping things under control is hard with normal food.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
  5. Re:nausea, vomiting, etc. by mysidia · · Score: 2

    Affected customers read the ingredient list.

    What would they put in it that would make a significant amount of customer sick,
    other than an adulterated, infected, contaminated or otherwise non-food-quality substance unfit for human consumption?

  6. Investigation? by mysidia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The company is urging customers to discard remaining bars and will begin e-mailing customers individually regarding refunds.

    Why would they be asking customers to discard, instead of send them back?
    I mean.... if they're really investigating, then they should take the returns, and then
    do some analysis of what was winding up in customer hands, right?
    Assuming they don't already have an explanation for people getting sick that they're uncomfortable sharing.......

  7. Soylent joins the pantheon of the greats by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Right up there with Lay's WOW chips and Haribo sugar free gummy bears (read the reviews, they're hilarious and disgusting)

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  8. Re:nausea, vomiting, etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ingredient list:
      97% Formerly affected customers, 3% corn syrup.

  9. that's what you get... by swschrad · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... when you make your stuff with Zika victims...

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  10. Re:In Russia... by number6x · · Score: 2

    In Russia, Soylent Bars are made of YOU!

    No, soylent red really was made from vegetable concentrates. It was the soylent green that was made from you. Even in Soviet Russia.

  11. Bond to happen... by DumbSwede · · Score: 2

    Because you know some people just make you sick.

  12. Re:nausea, vomiting, etc. by Thud457 · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://files.soylent.com/pdf/b...

    NGREDIENTS: Soy Protein Isolate, Corn Syrup, Rolled Oat, Canola Oil, Glycerine, Whole Algal Flour, Isomaltooligosaccharide, Isomaltulose, Maltodextrin, Water, Dicalcium Phosphate Anhydrous, Soy Lecithin, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Salt, Tapioca Starch, Sunflower Oil, Dipo- tassium Phosphate, Modified Food Starch, Po- tassium Chloride, Choline Bitartrate, Mixed Tocopherol, Sucralose, Mono & Diglycerides, Magnesium Oxide, Ascorbic Acid, dl-alpha-To- copheryl Acetate, Tricalcium Phosphate Anhy- drous, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Nia- cinamide, Zinc Oxide, Copper Gluconate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Manganese Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Potassium Iodide, Riboflavin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin D2, Chromium Chloride, Folic Acid, Biotin, Sodium Selenite, Sodium Molybdate, Phytonadione, Vitamin B12. Contains: Soy

    hmmm... exactly how much glycerin are they using?

    Ingredients ... are obtained from genetically engineered sources

    OH GOD NOES! RUN FOR THE HILLS! SCIENCE!

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  13. Welcome to basic biology by Khyber · · Score: 2

    Different people react differently to different inputs.

    You thought your product would be a perfect fit for everyone on the planet?

    You morons.

    This is why you shouldn't trust anyone claiming any panacea. You fall for the marketing, you deserve that intestinal upset.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    1. Re:Welcome to basic biology by Maritz · · Score: 2

      Different people react differently to different inputs.

      I don't.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  14. VICE episode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    There was an episode about Soylent on VICE a little bit back. Their facility was just an empty concrete building with plastic tubs of ingredients and the closest thing to health precautions being plastic sheeting thrown up in one area. They also saw rats in the building there, so I really wouldn't be surprised if they got contaminated.

    1. Re:VICE episode by pontoffel · · Score: 2

      They stopped doing that around the time VICE's video was finished shooting. Soylent manufacturing is contracted out to other facilities:
      https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-...

  15. Re:nausea, vomiting, etc. by kamitchell · · Score: 2

    Sucralose can cause bloating and diarrhea. In my experience it's fine in beverage-sweetener quantities, but in foods, especially snack foods, I might consume more than I really want to contend with.

    If the users are trying to replace their whole diet with these bars, they certainly could consume enough to have some sucralose-related difficulties.

    http://goaskalice.columbia.edu...

  16. Re:nausea, vomiting, etc. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "My guess would be... a lot." -Cameron Poe

    So four of the top six ingredients by weight all will nauseate the average human in sufficiently high concentrations. I think we've found the culprit.

    Hell, they might as well have named the damn things Vomit Bars...

  17. Re:Hope they fix it better than the Note 7 by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just had a Soylent Note 7 bar. It was delicious! ... burrrrp ~#^ [NO CARRIER]

  18. So, what's Soylent really about? by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have some customers in San Jose, and live in Berkeley. Given the horrid traffic and the lack of good trains with little hope that BART's Silicon Valley extension will be done within a decade, I get up at 5AM when it's necessary to work at these customer sites, hit the road by 5:30, and head home around 1 PM.

    Obviously, that doesn't leave time for a leisurely breakfast. So, a cold bottle of Soylent 2.0 just out of the 'fridge is about my best option while driving. Warm Soylent doesn't actually seem that much worse, and I've used that during long drives when the alternative would have been fast food.

    Yes, I get paid enough to compensate for all of this.

    Soylent 2.0 tastes OK, but not so good that you'd eat it just for the taste. It takes care of physical needs and doesn't do anything nasty to my gastrointestinal system. I do not attempt to use it as a total food replacement.

    Consuming Soylent, though, leads one to think about how food flavors and other characteristics of food are evolved or engineered to manipulate us, and how this is a dependence or addiction and perhaps the largest cause of health issues in our lives.

  19. Re:Only a matter of time by Overzeetop · · Score: 2

    I thought his sole goal was to reduce the time he spent on making/planning meals. Kind of like having a single color and style of suit, shirt, shoes - no decisions, just efficiency.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  20. Re:nausea, vomiting, etc. by omnichad · · Score: 2

    Those use malitol. A sugar alcohol that has far worse symptoms than sucralose in larger doses.

  21. It's made of clowns! by clickety6 · · Score: 2

    It's made of clowns! That's why it makes you feel funny!

    --
    ----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
  22. "human resources" by Thud457 · · Score: 5, Funny

    no no no No NO...
    "Rosa Labs -- our people are our greatest asset"

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff