Who The Hell Needs Food Ep. 3 Complete Food Awards 2021

Once again, Clive and I are back with our “Who the Hell Needs Food?” podcast, where we cover all the latest news about complete foods, as well as, have in-depth discussions about the products.

As we are in the new year, we thought it would be fun to look back and analyze what happened in 2021. What has been our perception of the year when it comes to complete nutrition? More importantly, we thought that it would be fun to do an award show, where we recognize the best (and the worst) 2021 has brought to us.

Therefore, I strongly suggest you having a listen to this very enjoyable episode, where Clive and I talk about our favourite innovations, favorite complete shakes and even reveal what the biggest disappointment of the year has been.

Watch it now!

Complete Food Awards 2021 – The Format

To make this show even more fun, we thought it would be best if neither of us knew each other’s picks. Thus, we pre-set 7 different categories for our awards, and we revealed our picks to each other during the show.

The 7 awards given where as follows:

Product of the Year. This was given to the most innovative, ground-breaking, and successful product. This complete food product had to be new, but also well received and well executed.

Surprise of the Year. Having tried hundreds of shakes, we can often guess the texture, flavour of the shake before trying it. For this award, we were looking at a meal replacement that had surprised us before or after trying it.
Bust of the Year. While 2021 has been an incredibly positive year for meal replacements, not all has been good. With this award we wanted to point out a product or a company that has performed below our expectations.
Best Meal Replacement Powder, Best Bar and Best RTD. Pretty self explanatory. What were the best meal replacement products in 2021 in the 3 different formats?

Company of the Year. What company stood out in 2021? Which one delivered the best products, or innovated the most, or simply had the most growth?

For the show, both Clive and I chose our picks and revealed to each other during the show.

Compete Food Awards 2021 – The Winners

I would strongly recommend you watching the show to fully understand our picks and to hear what the honorary mentions where. However, if you don’t have the patience for it (I don’t blame you), here is what we chose:

Product of the Year

Interestingly, this was a category where we both strongly agreed on the winner.

Hover to reveal the pick!

Spoiler: Huel Hot & Savoury

In my opinion, this was the clear winner. It’s been a product that has moved the industry forward, has had huge success and has even opened the doors to new customers. In the previous Complete Food Survey, this was an area where many users felt there was a gap.

This product came and filled this gap, almost to perfection. While there’s been other brands trying to come up with their solution, none has achieved to the degree this product did.

In fact, 1 year after its launch we have gone from 3 flavours to 9, with a great variety and pretty good taste across the board. I could go on and on, but I recommend listening to the podcast.

Surprise of the Year

For this award, Clive and I had different answers. Truth be told, it was one of the most subjective awards and I believe both picks were worth it.

Spoiler Enaut: Dare Motivation

Spoiler Clive: Mana Burger

For my pick, I went with a product where I had very little expectations for, but actually ended up blowing my mind. There are very few shakes (spoiler) that I have been so wrong about before trying. It was a joy to have them, and I’m looking forward to seeing the development of this brand.

As for Clive, I think that he also had a great winner. It’s a product that has only recently been made available in the UK, but I think it could be a game changer. There’s room for improvement on the delivery system and the price, but otherwise, it’s wonderful.

Bust of the Year

Perhaps I made Clive a little bit uncomfortable with this category, but by no means there was any ill intentions behind it. Simply, some things don’t work out as planned. A launch can backfire, or you can have issues in how you deliver the product.

For this I chose Soylent.

As for Clive, he chose Huel Complete Protein Bars.

For me, this year has been down right bad for this company. They have had fulfillment issues, shipping delays, and launched products that I thought missed the mark. Furthermore, they’ve alienated their core audience by not giving them the only thing they wanted: the bucket.

On the other hand, Clive went for a product he recently tried. Every time this company releases a new products there are high expectations, so perhaps this came into play. Unfortunately, this new bar did not meet Clive’s expectations.

Meal Replacements of the Year

I’m not going to reveal the winners for this awards on this article. BUMMER! I know. You will have to listen to the podcast if you wanna know who won, arguably, the most important prices of the night.

I must say, that these are incredibly subjective, and that I believe complete foods are incredibly flexible and personal in nature. For instance, if we were to do the best meal replacement powder more seriously, I would’ve split it into different categories.

Nonetheless, the winners deserved it. And now more than ever, there’s a wonderful plethora of options to pick from. Make sure to make the most out of it.

Company of the Year

For me there was little room for discussion. I had a clear winner and the rest were miles away. However, Clive came with an underdog pick that I think has it’s merits.

Spoiler Enaut: Huel

Spoiler Clive: Jimmyjoy

Personally, I think that this year was unfair. The company I picked had a huge capital influx, and they used it to their advantage excelently (which is not always easy to do). They released multiple products (most of them a hit), increased the range of flavours in every meal replacement they offer, introduce a starter pack and even the option to pick single servings to try out; all without decreasing the quality of their service. Huge props to their customers support, and logistics team.

As for Clive, I think that he also picked a winner. It was in my honorable mentions. This brand has also noticeably increased their range, added few more flavours, and above all, kept delivering great affordable shakes.

Conclusion

All in all, it was a blast of an episode, which I highly recommend you listening to. I made sure to include picks for both US and EU listeners – which I haven’t mention here-; so that it was useful for everybody.

We also briefly covered the latest news, and what our expectations are heading to 2022.

I hope you all had a great start to the new year,

Take care!