When a secretive ingredient promised to revolutionize healthy snacking, it sparked a fierce battle between scrappy start-ups and a protein bar juggernaut—raising big questions about innovation, monopoly, and what really goes into the bars we eat. As Men's Health reports, the fight centers on EPG, a lab-made fat substitute that delivers a creamy texture without the calories. Once seen as the "holy grail" for health-conscious brands, it's now at the center of a clash over who gets to use it.
Defiant Chocolate, a small family-owned startup in Utah, built its chocolate bars around EPG and thought it had found a breakthrough. Then, earlier this year, its supplier Epogee abruptly cut them off. "It was devastating," said Defiant Chocolate co-founder Mckay Fugal. And the reason for the cutoff was simple: Epogee had been acquired by David, a fast-rising protein bar company founded by RxBar creator Peter Rahal. Armed with $75 million in celebrity-backed funding, David quickly turned heads with bars boasting 28 grams of protein, no sugar, and just 150 calories. According to a lawsuit filed by Defiant and two other startups: "It is very much like David acting as Goliath."
By buying Epogee, Rahal made EPG exclusive to David, leaving smaller competitors with no access to the ingredient they'd built their businesses around. The lawsuit accuses him of monopolizing a one-of-a-kind technology and shutting out rivals in a market where few alternatives exist. For Defiant, the move meant watching years of work vanish overnight. "For us, it's not just about chocolate bars," Fugal said. "It's about whether small companies even have a chance."
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The controversy also raises larger questions about engineered nutrition. Decades after Olestra's infamous run-ins with the public, EPG is considered safer, but it still comes with caveats: Its undigestible nature can cause gastrointestinal issues if overconsumed, and most safety studies are industry-funded. The takeover has also sparked heated debate in fitness circles and online, where critics question whether we even need lab-engineered snacks when whole foods can deliver similar benefits. But Rahal told Men's Health, "Nobody ever said the future of food was going to be boring." Read the full story.
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