Meal kit company says it may have identified ingredient that led to reported illness, organ removal

Meal kit company Daily Harvest this week said it may have identified the ingredients responsible for a major illness outbreak that sickened dozens and reportedly led to some consumers having some organs removed. 

The company has been under fire in recent weeks for an illness outbreak among numerous consumers that was apparently connected to a lentil-leek dish the business distributed in its meal kit packages. 

On a blog post on the company's website on Tuesday, CEO Rachel Drori said investigators had identified "tara flour" as the source of the outbreak.

"Our extensive investigation has involved many experts analyzing data from all sources," Drori wrote. "We have only used this ingredient in French Lentil + Leek Crumbles and we are no longer sourcing from this producer who does not provide any ingredients for our 140+ other items."

"This was the first and only time we’ve used tara flour," Drori added, noting that the company will continue to work with health investigators. 

Daily Harvest is facing several lawsuits in connection with the outbreak from consumers who said they needed to get organs removed in response to the illness linked to the lentil dish.