Company type | Privately held company |
---|---|
Industry | Meal replacements |
Founded | 2014 |
Founders | Julian Hearn, James Collier |
Headquarters | Tring, Hertfordshire |
Products | Huel |
Website | huel |
Huel Ltd. is a British company that makes plant-based meals, snacks, drinks, and food supplements. [1] [2] [3] The head office is in Tring, Hertfordshire. [4]
Its products are made from oats, rice protein, pea protein, sunflower, flaxseed, coconut oil MCTs, and several dietary supplements (vitamins and minerals). Most products are sweetened with sucralose or stevia. The product's name is a portmanteau of human fuel. [5]
In 2014, Huel was founded by Julian Hearn in Aylesbury, England. The original recipe was formulated by registered nutritionist James Collier, founder and former owner of MuscleTalk, a bodybuilding website, [6] with the intention of providing the recommended daily amounts (RDAs) of nutrients as stipulated by the European Food Safety Authority, in a vegan and environmentally friendly product.
Huel powder, the first product, was released in 2015 and is sold in 1.7 kg white bags. Its ingredients contain oats, rice, pea protein, and micronutrients. Black Edition was released in December 2019; it contains 50% fewer carbohydrates and 33% more protein than the original Huel powder, and is sweetened with stevia and organic coconut sugar, instead of artificial sweetener. [7]
In 2016 Huel began delivering to the rest of Europe [8] and by June 2017, it became available in the United States. [9] In November 2017, former Life Health Foods UK chief executive James McMaster was appointed as chief executive officer of the company to oversee its international expansion. [10]
In 2023, Huel reported a 28% increase in revenue year-on-year, reaching £184.5 million for the 12 months to 31 July 2023. [11] In 2024, Huel surpassed £200 million in revenue for the financial year ending 31 July 2024, tripling its profit compared to the previous year. [12] Alongside its financial growth, Huel achieved B Corp certification in 2023, meeting strict social sustainability and environmental performance standards. The company also became a partner of Tony’s Open Chain, an initiative promoting ethical cocoa sourcing. [13]
In November 2023, Huel's CEO James McMaster said the company was open to a sale, and played down talk of floating the company on the stock market, citing poor market conditions in the UK. [14] Shortly afterward, in January 2024, Huel opened a new factory in Milton Keynes to support its growing operations. [15]
Huel offers a diverse range of nutritionally complete food and supplement products designed for convenience, sustainability, and balanced nutrition. All products are plant-based and formulated to meet the dietary needs of a variety of lifestyles. Below is an overview of Huel’s offerings:
In February 2023, the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned two Huel advertisements after ruling that claims that Huel could help people save money were misleading, and that one of the advertisements violated the rules on making health claims about products. [16] [17]
In August 2024, the ASA banned another Huel advertisement by Steven Bartlett due to undisclosed company affiliations. [18] [19]
A sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweetness like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy than sugar-based sweeteners, making it a zero-calorie or low-calorie sweetener. Artificial sweeteners may be derived through manufacturing of plant extracts or processed by chemical synthesis. Sugar substitute products are commercially available in various forms, such as small pills, powders, and packets.
"Junk food" is a term used to describe food that is high in calories from macronutrients such as sugar and fat, and often also high in sodium, making it hyperpalatable, and low in dietary fiber, protein, or micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. It is also known as "high in fat, salt and sugar food". The term junk food is a pejorative dating back to the 1950s.
Human nutrition deals with the provision of essential nutrients in food that are necessary to support human life and good health. Poor nutrition is a chronic problem often linked to poverty, food security, or a poor understanding of nutritional requirements. Malnutrition and its consequences are large contributors to deaths, physical deformities, and disabilities worldwide. Good nutrition is necessary for children to grow physically and mentally, and for normal human biological development.
A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement a person's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources, or that are synthetic. The classes of nutrient compounds in supplements include vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, and amino acids. Dietary supplements can also contain substances that have not been confirmed as being essential to life, and so are not nutrients per se, but are marketed as having a beneficial biological effect, such as plant pigments or polyphenols. Animals can also be a source of supplement ingredients, such as collagen from chickens or fish for example. These are also sold individually and in combination, and may be combined with nutrient ingredients. The European Commission has also established harmonized rules to help insure that food supplements are safe and appropriately labeled.
Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It is a byproduct of the manufacturing of cheese or casein and has several commercial uses. Sweet whey is a byproduct resulting from the manufacture of rennet types of hard cheese, like cheddar or Swiss cheese. Acid whey is a byproduct brought out during the making of acid types of dairy products, such as strained yogurt.
Cat food is food specifically formulated and designed for consumption by cats. As obligate carnivores, cats have specific requirements for their dietary nutrients, namely nutrients found only in meat or synthesized, such as taurine and Vitamin A. Certain nutrients, including many vitamins and amino acids, are degraded by the temperatures, pressures and chemical treatments used during manufacture, and hence must be added after manufacture to avoid nutritional deficiency. Cat food is typically sold as dry kibble, or as wet food in cans and pouches.
Milo is a chocolate-flavoured malted powder product produced by Nestlé, typically mixed with milk, hot water, or both, to produce a beverage. It was originally developed in Australia by Thomas Mayne (1901–1995) in 1934.
Therapeutic foods are foods designed for specific, usually nutritional, therapeutic purposes as a form of dietary supplement. The primary examples of therapeutic foods are used for emergency feeding of malnourished children or to supplement the diets of persons with special nutrition requirements, such as the elderly.
Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast, often a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, that is sold commercially as a food product. It is sold in the form of yellow flakes, granules, or powder and can be found in the bulk aisle of most natural food stores. It is popular with vegans and vegetarians and may be used as an ingredient in recipes or as a condiment.
MET-Rx is an American brand of nutritional supplements originally produced by Met-Rx, Inc., a California company started by Scott Connelly, and sold several times since.
Ensure is an American brand of nutritional supplements and meal replacements manufactured by Abbott Laboratories.
Sports nutrition is the study and practice of nutrition and diet with regards to improving anyone's athletic performance. Nutrition is an important part of many sports training regimens, being popular in strength sports and endurance sports. Sports nutrition focuses its studies on the type, as well as the quantity of fluids and food taken by an athlete. In addition, it deals with the consumption of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, supplements and organic substances that include carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
Twinlab Consolidated Corporation is an American company which manufactures and markets vitamins, minerals, and bodybuilding supplements. Twinlab is based in Boca Raton, Florida.
Animal feed is food given to domestic animals, especially livestock, in the course of animal husbandry. There are two basic types: fodder and forage. Used alone, the word feed more often refers to fodder. Animal feed is an important input to animal agriculture, and is frequently the main cost of the raising or keeping of animals. Farms typically try to reduce cost for this food, by growing their own, grazing animals, or supplementing expensive feeds with substitutes, such as food waste like spent grain from beer brewing.
Pharmavite is an American vitamin and supplement company, based in West Hills, California and founded in 1971 by Barry Pressman and Henry Burdick. Its Nature Made vitamin brand was launched that same year. It was acquired by Otsuka Pharmaceutical in 1989.
Vegan nutrition refers to the nutritional and human health aspects of vegan diets. A well-planned vegan diet is suitable to meet all recommendations for nutrients in every stage of human life. Vegan diets tend to be higher in dietary fiber, magnesium, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E, and phytochemicals; and lower in calories, saturated fat, iron, cholesterol, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, calcium, zinc, and vitamin B12.
Nesquik is a brand of food products made by Swiss company Nestlé. In 1948, Nestlé launched a drink mix for chocolate-flavored milk called Nestlé Quik in the United States; this was released in Europe during the 1950s as Nesquik.
Fish protein powder (FPP) describes a food grade powder product designated primarily for human consumption applications. It differs significantly from fish meal products which are designated for animal feed applications. Fish protein powders have various sanitary processing, purity and functional characteristics which establish them as human food ingredients. Production plants registered for the USA market are located in Peru and France.
Ambronite is a nutritional drinkable meal replacement intended to supply all of a human body's daily needs, made from 20 organic ingredients that includes berries, nuts, seeds and spinach. The product is a powder that is mixed with water to turn it into food. Ambronite's name is based on the Greek word for "food of the Gods" — Ambrosia.
As in the human practice of veganism, vegan dog foods are those formulated with the exclusion of ingredients that contain or were processed with any part of an animal, or any animal byproduct. Vegan dog food may incorporate the use of fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes including soya, nuts, vegetable oils, as well as any other non-animal based foods.