Rosa Labs taking heat over quality control

Rosa Labs taking heat over quality control

In three threads on reddit, users are complaining about mold on bottles of Soylent 2.0 and other quality control issues. Two different users report finding mold on the tops or the threads of 2.0 bottles, with pictures (one provided above). Another user provided a picture of a bottle of Coffiest with mold around the threads of the top. Rosa Lab's designated community manager, /r/soylentconor, has replied indicating that mold problems may be due to problems in shipping:

the majority of mold issues are caused by rough shipping. We unfortunately can never ensure a package is not handled roughly. We constantly adjust packaging in this regard.

Other users find this dubious:

If this is a shipping issue, from where on the bottle is the leak occurring?

I can't prove it anymore because I already poured out the liquid, but there were no signs of leaks and the top seal was intact. There was no sign of the mold inside the bottle either that I could tell.

Others gripe about problems with the powder:

After I found my last batch had improperly sealed bags (I opened the box and found loose powder everywhere... also attracted ants..) I canceled my subscription and switched to joylent.

In the end, it comes down to a matter of trust. As one user comments,

there are preservative-free products widely available at every supermarket that do not have mold on them. Neither did I say it was isolated to Rosa Labs. My only point is that Rosa Labs by nature of their product asked me to trust their idea of what food could be. If they can't get the basics down, why should I trust their more "revolutionary" ideas?

I'll add comments to this post if there are new developments -- you all do, too!