Hey, Daily Harvest, Who Made the Crumbles and Where Did You Get the Tara?

Inquiring minds, and people with acute liver failure, would like to know.

After speaking with over 175 people in the last week who have suffered nearly identical symptoms, and who primarily ate the Daily Harvest French Lentil + Leek Crumbles, we are sill at a loss as to what toxin, chemical, etc., are causing these symptoms and what, if any, are the long-term impacts. The lab we are using and the FDA are hard at work trying to get to the bottom of this.

Due to a bit of luck, it appears that Tara, because it is only found in the French Lentil + Leek Crumbles, may be key in figuring out what is causing this outbreak.

Tara, or Caesalpinia spinosa is a shrub or tree that can reach a height of 8 meters with spreading, grey-barked leafy branches. The leaves are compound, bipinnate, alternate and spirally organized and reach a length of 35 cm. The fruit is a flat oblong indehiscent reddish pod which contains 4 ~ 7 large round black seeds composed of endosperm (22% by weight), germ (40%) and hull (38%). The tara tree is native to the Cordillera region of Peru and Bolivia in South America, where the fruit grows from April to December. Tara trees grow at up to 3,000 meters above sea level and tolerate dry climates and poor soils including those high in sand and rocks. The tree is also resistant to most pathogens and pests. Mature pods are usually harvested by hand and typically sun dried before processing. It appears to only grow above 9,000 feet in Peru – a trip to Machu Picchu is in order.

I am learning much about Tara – both as a gum or a flour – and its implications as a food item. There will be more on that later. Question: Daily Harvest, where did you source your Tara from?

Also, it seems a bit unclear from this language on the bag of Daily Harvest French Lentil + Leek Crumbles, if Daily Harvest or some other entity manufactured the product. Answer?

MADE IN A FACILITY THAT ALSO PROCESSES TREE NUTS, SOY, DAIRY, & SESAME

DISTR. BY DAILY HARVEST INC. NEW YORK, NY 10013

Republished with permission from Bill Marler and Marler Clark. Copyright (c) Marler Clark LLP, PS. All rights reserved.