Soylent stops Canadian sales after regulators say it’s not a real meal

Soylent is no longer available in Canada after running afoul of food regulation standards. Rosa Foods CEO Rob Rhinehart wrote today that Soylent doesn’t meet “a select few” of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s requirements for meal-replacement products. No more Soylent will be shipped to Canadian customers until it’s able to come to an agreement with the CFIA, something Rhinehart says will happen “as quickly as possible.”

Rhinehart didn’t specify which guidelines Soylent fell afoul of, but insists that the standards “do not reflect the current understanding of human nutritional needs.” (We’ve reached out to the CFIA for more details.) The Soylent team apparently learned about this decision in early October, and attempted to reach a resolution before announcing the news. Rhinehart says there are “no firm timelines” for returning Soylent to Canada, but that the company will be posting regular updates.

Soylent started sales to Canada in 2015, making it the first — and so far, only — non-US country to get the meal-replacement drink. The CFIA announced a food safety investigation last year in the wake of a major Soylent recall, after consumers started complaining of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. But Rhinehart says the current issue at hand is labeling, not product quality. “There is nothing wrong with the Soylent product you are consuming,” he says.