Daily Harvest, a direct-to-consumer food service backed by investors like Gwyneth Paltrow and Serena Williams, launched its French Lentil + Leek Crumbles in April 2022. By June, the company had to issue a voluntary recall after receiving 470 complaints of gastrointestinal, liver, and gallbladder illnesses.
After consuming the product, Cory Silverstein, a social media influencer, reported experiencing excruciating pain and found his liver enzymes tested at levels 12 times above normal. Similarly, other content creators required emergency gallbladder surgery after consuming the crumbles.
Initially, FDA officials suspected contamination at the manufacturing site, but tests revealed a different cause: tara flour. Made from a Peruvian thorny shrub, tara flour was used by Daily Harvest for its high protein content. Unlike its widely used counterpart, tara gum, tara flour is processed differently and had never been approved as a human food ingredient in the U.S.
The pods of the tara plant are used to make tara gum and tara flour. The latter has been found to be an unapproved food additive. Florapix/Alamy Stock Photo
The incident highlights flaws in the FDA’s regulatory system, particularly its “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) loophole, which allows new ingredients to enter the food supply without prior approval. Though GRAS was intended for commonly used ingredients, companies have exploited it to introduce new chemicals without sufficient oversight. Critics argue the system is “backward” and places consumers at risk, as seen in the case of tara flour, which remained in circulation for nearly two years before being flagged as unsafe by the FDA.
Efforts to close these loopholes and improve food safety standards remain ongoing as more states, like California, take action against hazardous substances overlooked by federal regulations.
