US company Soylent - which produces 'meal replacement' foods - has admitted that two of its products appear to have caused a 'small number' of people to become sick.
It follows complaints from some Soylent customers that they had become unwell after eating the company's 'Bar' and 'Powder 1.6' (Soylent 'updates' several of its products like a technology company).
As reported by Gizmodo, some customers had taken to the Soylent forums with complaints such as 'nausea and vomiting several times after eating food bars'.
In a blog post, Soylent says they have "worked aggressively to uncover why people were having these negative experiences" with their food bar product.
The company says their tests came back "negative for food pathogens, toxins or outside contamination", adding that "the absence of a positive test has allowed us to shift our focus to whether any one ingredient might be triggering a food intolerance".
Soylent also says that they have also heard of reports of stomach-related symptoms from a 'handful of consumers (less than 0.1%)' of its powder product.
"Interestingly, we didn’t see similar complaints during the 1.5 formulation," the company explains. "This possible connection allows us to narrow the field considerably given there are only a few ingredients that are specific to only our bars and Powder 1.6."
Both products have been temporarily removed from sale, and are being 'reformulated' to remove the likely ingredients.
The company says it will share the results of its investigation with food safety authorities in the US.
Two other Soylent food products - including its main Soylent drink - remain on sale.
Soylent, despite not being made out of human beings, is named after the sci-fi novel Make Room! Make Room! which introduced the fictional product Soylent Green (also the name of the film adaptation). The real-life food is said to offer "healthy, convenient, and affordable food".
The company pledges to provide all the nutrients "that a body needs to thrive".
However, concerns have been raised over issues such as the taste of the product and the lack of nutritional variety in a Soylent diet.
