[kashnikov]

Hope they get good liability insurance.

[guard-of-terra]

Your comment is precisely why people write the next twitter for facebook instead of curing cancer or solving hunger.

[guywithabike]

Soylent isn't curing cancer or solving hunger. They're selling meal replacement drinks, which is a large, established market.

[guard-of-terra]

Computers were large established market once, but you could not buy one home.

I don't see meal replacement drinks in food stores around, don't think those would be off-the-shelf no-brainer anyway.

It creates a new market.

[ubercore]

Could anyone actually (successfully) hold them liable? I'd think it would be their suppliers that would need liability insurance, since they're just repackaging already-approved food items.

[gamblor956]

Yes, it's basic tort law. They're not just repacking food items, they're combining them in a non-reversible manner. This essentially makes them the manufacturer. Consequently, they will have opened themselves up to liability for every ingredient they use. (But they may be able to go after a supplier for indemnification depending on the circumstances.

[ubercore]

Thanks for the clarification! That makes now that I think about it more. I was thinking more along the lines of product manufacturing, which I think is less stringent (honestly I may be wrong there too).

[joonix]

No. Products liability. Everyone in the "chain" can be liable including retailers and manufactureres.

[rdouble]

Supplement companies get sued all the time.