NO MORE COOKING, NO
MORE FOOD?
Tête-à-tête Rob Rhinehart, inventor of food substitute Soylent, discusses how his creation came about
Software
engineer Rob Rhinehart, 26, turned to food engineering when he
decided he did not like cooking or shopping for food.
So
he searched the internet and came up with a list of nutrients and
micronutrients the body cannot do without, bulk ordered them and
mixed them in proportions of daily recommended allowance. He named
his superfood Soylent. Soylent is a white powder, consuming 450 gm
of which each day, mixed with water, can take care of our daily
nutritional requirements.
“You
just mix it in water, shake it and drink it and you absolutely do
not need to eat anything through the day. You feel full. About 450
gm is enough to provide an average 2,000 calories,” says
Rhinehart, who was in India to speak at the Hindustan Times
Leadership Summit, 2014.
“And
the best part is that it is healthy and spares you the trouble of
planning what to cook for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and cleaning
the dishes every single day, something that most working people
would like to avoid due to their superhectic schedule,” says
Rhinehart.
Three
years ago, Rhinehart started a hardware developing company in the
Silicon valley after graduating from an engineering school. However,
the company did not do too well, and he started looking for other
innovations to bring him fame and fortune.
“After
a lot of thinking I realised my immediate problem was that I did not
feel healthy. I was eating a lot of junk because that was easily
available, cheap and convenient,” he says. “My thoughts were
focused on how to make food healthy and convenient to eat.”
So
December 2012 onwards, Rhinehart started reading up on the subject
and talking to experts in the fields of human anatomy, physiological
chemistry and biochemistry, to find the ideal human diet based on
the needs of the body.
In
a little over a month, he collected 35 different nutrients such as
carbohydrates, protein, sodium, calcium et cetera and mixed them in
right quantity to create the powder. He collected the raw material
from various food-processing suppliers. “It has a lot of
micronutrients but no extra calories,” he says. The next step was
experimentation. “It could not have been anybody else but me since
it was my creation, which does not mean that I was not nervous,”
says Rhinehart. “In fact, I was a little uncertain initially,
somewhat apprehensive too, but eventually after I had it I felt
great and not hungry at all.”
He
remained on Soylent for over a month and went public with his
product only when he was confident about its result. “I have been
on it for over two years now. I get my blood tests done every month.
There have been no negative side-effects,” he says. However, like
in the case of most start-ups, the problem of funding plagued his
idea too. So Rhinehart decided to go public, asking for financial
help, with a year-long crowd funding campaign.
“In
layman’s terms, crowd funding is when you put an idea on the
internet and ask for help. And we got help not only in manufacturing
the product but also with shipping it in the domestic market,” he
says.
Within
six months of distribution, Rhinehart’s team today sends out one
million units per day — a figure that is indicative of Soylent
generating interest in, both, national and international markets.
In
effect, this means shipping 3 million meals a day, with 100,000
customers just in the United States. Among other things the reason
for Soylent’s popularity in the US is also its affordability — a
day’s meal costs about $9.
There
is tremendous backlog in the US market, so much so that if an order
is placed today it will be delivered after three months.
“We
are scaling up and plan to expand business, and we know we’ll have
to bring down the cost of the product for markets like India. We are
looking at $5 cap,” says Rhinehart.
He
feels the product is just right for India, with its burgeoning
middle class that has the capacity to pay but not enough time to
cook.
“It’s
definitely not for the poor but I see white-collar professionals
buying it for the product’s simplicity, efficacy and
functionality,” he says. “I could see the product easily fitting
in for those who don’t have time but want to eat healthy.”
Soylent
may not boast of excellent taste, with the maker calling it neutral,
people have found ways to pep it up. “People add flavours like
cinnamon, coffee, fruits and berries to it. The product is heat
adjustable so some even bake with it.”
The
only problem that Rhinehart sees is in its texture. “The current
form is a little gritty; very dense because of the starch and fibre
content that gets difficult to dissolve. We are working on the next
version that will be smoother,” he says.
The
popularity of the product not withstanding, Rhinehart feels there is
place for traditional food that won’t be easy to replace.
“I
still accept the social and pleasurable aspects of traditional food.
In fact, my own food pattern depends 80% on Soylent and 20% on the
traditional meal that I enjoy with family and friends occasionally,”
he admits.
- Rhythma Kaul HT23NOV14
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