The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert from meal replacement brand Huel that featured company founder Julian Hearn for breaching the advertising code.

The advert was posted on Huel’s Instagram account and featured a video of Hearn speaking about their Daily Greens product.

In the advert, Hearns said: “You’ve been told your whole life to eat greens, and a lot of people can’t get that amount of greens into their diet […] we’ve taken a very broad range of greens, so you get a product which is equally good, or in my eyes better, but you get it substantially cheaper.”

The UK advertising watchdog said the claim that Huel Daily Green had just as much or more overall national content as an equivalent portion of green vegetables was not a “permitted comparative nutrient claim”, and so breached the advertising code.

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The regulatory body also argued that the Huel did not provide any evidence to support its other claims, such as it was “substantially cheaper” than a daily intake of fresh green vegetables.

Other health assertions that the nutrition brand failed to prove include specific claims in relation to iron, biotin 2, and phrases such as “superfoods to supercharge your health”, “gut-friendly probiotics” and “all the nutrients your body needs to thrive”.

This is the second time that Huel has had an ad banned in two months. In August, the watchdog found the brand’s Facebook adverts to be in breach of the code, as they featured a testimonial from entrepreneur Steven Bartlett that “misleadingly” omitted that he was one of the company’s directors.

Huel has been contacted for comment.