What You Need To Know About The Recent Daily Harvest Recall

Superfood or ticket to the ER? Meal delivery services might have become more popular since the pandemic, but a recent incident with one service makes subscribers question whether it's a healthier option, after all -– or if the convenience is worth the risk.

Recently, plant-based meal delivery service Daily Harvest announced a "voluntary recall" of its French Lentil + Leek Crumbles. All customers who purchased the Crumbles are being asked to throw them away after multiple reports of health problems surfaced via social media in direct correlation to the Crumbles. Victims reported severe abdominal pain, multiple trips to the emergency room, and organ failure, per the New York Post. Abigail Silverman of Cosmopolitan Magazine was even tested for hepatitis, gall stones, and other illnesses after eating the product and experiencing a mystery illness, via the news outlet.  Daily Harvest and the FDA have yet to announce the cause of the contamination or identify any specific foodborne illnesses or pathogens.

Daily Harvest also released the recall update via Instagram, and folks in the comments section don't seem impressed. One user asks, "So, what are the adverse reactions? I haven't even subscribed yet but planned to... maybe I should rethink." Another subscriber reports frustration at having to throw away a freezer full of food that was already paid for. Other comments criticize Daily Harvest for use of the blame-dodging word "voluntary" and criticize the company for not alerting subscribers of the recall via a mass email alert.

Founder Rachel Drori launched Daily Harvest in 2015 and, in just three years, the platform had accrued over 100,000 across the U.S. by 2018, via Forbes. 95% of the Daily Harvest's ingredients are organic, according to Healthline –- but the other 5% might be a lot more dangerous than trans fat. In the statement earlier this week, the company said that it is "working closely with the FDA and with multiple independent labs to investigate this... that includes microbiologists, toxin and pathogen experts as well as allergists." A spokesperson from the FDA told the New York Daily News that the FDA takes reports of dangerous food contamination very seriously, but "cannot confirm or deny if an investigation is planned or in progress." 

Daily Harvest is issuing refunds to customers who purchased the French Lentil + Leek Crumbles and is requesting any affected persons to share their symptoms to help collect investigative data to identify the root cause of the contamination. Consumers are understandably wary of this song and dance after the mass Jif peanut-butter recall of recent months, which affected a number of brands and products across supermarket shelves.