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Soylent Recalls Dairy Free Product Due to Dairy Contamination

By George Khoury, Esq. on April 27, 2017 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Soylent, the food company that makes meal replacement products, announced a voluntary recall of one of their powdered drinkable food products this week. The recall was due to a dairy free variety of the product that accidentally had dairy included in it during the manufacturing process. While this may not sound like a major concern, for those with dairy allergies, dairy contamination is a serious matter.

Believe it or not, yes, there is actually a real food product called Soylent. The company's origin make it relatively clear that the name is actually based on the 1973 movie "Soylent Green," where the world's food source is called Soylent Green and is made out of people. Based on a The New Yorker piece, it's pretty plain to see that the film inspired the name for the founder's early recipes, though to be clear, the real Soylent does not contain people.

Details of the Recall

Soylent explained that the recall was the result of a temporary breakdown at a third party manufacturer. The manufacturer was running two product lines next to each other, and one contained whey powder that accidentally got mixed into the one that was not supposed to contain dairy. The recall is due to the fact that the packaging of the product does not list the dairy ingredient, which can be very dangerous for individuals with serious dairy allergies. Companies can face liability when their products fail to warn about ingredients that can harm people with allergies.

Specifically, it is the Soylent 1.8 powder with SKU number 1WK-V108 and lot number G7076PA, with a best buy date of February 2018. The company is offering to replace any products that are affected by recall free of charge. Fortunately no injuries have been reported, and the number of units affected by the recall is under 1,000.

Soylent has resumed shipping this product as they are confident that the contaminated products have been identified and that the problem has been remedied. As explained by Ars Technica, this recall was done swiftly and openly, unlike the fiasco Soylent faced last year over their snack bars. When numerous consumers reported getting sick after eating the bars, the company struggled to find out what went wrong, which caused a significant disruption to the company.

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