Daily Harvest Meals Might Be Causing A Mysterious Illness
Vegan health food company Daily Harvest is in hot water after hundreds of consumers were seriously sickened by one of the brand's products. For a company that "prioritizes human and planetary health," per the Daily Harvest website, this is a pretty big deal.
The problem isn't limited to a smattering of individuals, either. Around 470 people report serious illness after consuming the brand's "French Lentil + Leek Crumbles," including multiple people who wound up having to have their gallbladders removed, per NBC News. Now, at least 100 people are filing suit against the company for what they say was severe gastrointestinal pain, which in some cases led to elevated liver enzymes, says CNN.
As one source told CNN, Daily Harvest was "built on the backs of influencers," but in a darkly ironic turn, this meal kit company wound up sickening some of the very same people responsible for its success, including vegan influencer Luke Wesley Pearson. Celebrities like Serena Williams and Gwyneth Paltrow have also vocally supported the company. So far, affected individuals are underwhelmed by the company's response to the resulting illnesses, the cause of which remains a mystery.
Here's what Daily Harvest is doing to pinpoint a cause
Although an official recall of the product was issued by the FDA on June 23, a lot of people were angered by Daily Harvest's initial June 19 Instagram post, which vaguely referred to "an important message about our French Lentil + Leek Crumbles."
28,000 affected packages of the product were distributed from April 28 to June 17, according to the recall. Anyone in possession of the product should immediately throw it away. To date, the company has yet to figure out what is causing the illness, despite the fact that they're working closely with a team of experts to figure it out. So far, however, toxicology, pathogen, and allergy testing results have not yielded any answers, a company spokesperson told CNN.
The good news for the company, however, is that it is "confident" that this problem is not affecting any of its other products, according to the latest recall update on the Daily Harvest site. Hopefully, this will all be figured out soon. In the meantime, anyone who ate the product and experienced illness is encouraged to inform the company by email or by calling the company at 1-888-302-0305 (9 a.m. – 9 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 days a week).