Dive Brief:
- Soylent is kicking off the new year by releasing new flavors for its functional RTD beverage line Soylent Drink, according to a news release.
- Cacao and Nectar will now join Soylent's original Coffiest flavor as a demonstration of Soylent's "commitment to innovation," according to the news release.
- These new additions are already available for purchase on Soylent's website for consumers in the U.S. and Canada. Amazon will begin sales in the U.S. on Jan. 10.
Dive Insight:
While this is a positive announcement and step forward for Soylent, the company is still reeling from a recall last year of its food bars, which were making consumers sick. Soylent pointed to algal flour, made by TerraVia, as the reason consumers were becoming ill, and TerraVia announced last month that it would no longer supply ingredients to Soylent following the accusations.
Soylent said it would reformulate its food bars without the algal flour to prevent future complications — and is forced to anyway after losing TerraVia as a supplier. Instead, the company replaced the ingredient with high oleic sunflower oil, which, along with soy protein, is also a key ingredient in the new RTD beverage varieties.
Once these new beverages and the reformulated food bars hit the market, it should only be a matter of time before consumers and Soylent discern whether algal flour was the real reason for consumers' illnesses. If the illness reports continue, Soylent may have to return to the drawing board for its entire portfolio to replace any problematic ingredients that could be causing food insensitivity for a wide range of consumers, including those without food allergies.
The new recipe plus the flavors debut could be enough to return Soylent to consumers' good graces for now. But if Soylent hasn't solved its ingredients problem, and lost a key supplier in the process, the company could have a much harder time bouncing back next time.