Daily Harvest Recalls Lentil Crumbles After Customers Allege Severe Liver Illness

Popular vegan meal company Daily Harvest is under fire: Droves of customers have complained on social media about a range of alarming health issues—including agonizing stomach pain, liver and gallbladder damage, and vomiting—they claimed started after eating the company’s French Lentil + Leek Crumbles. On Friday, Daily Harvest, which is backed by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, recalled the plant-based meat alternative via a direct email to customers.

“What started as extremely intense upper abdominal pain, fever, nausea, and fatigue took a dark turn with the test results for my liver enzymes,” one Instagram user wrote. He said his liver readings were abnormally high, even though he doesn’t drink. “I went home with no answers and the pain continued for 2 more days before finally subsiding.” Another Twitter user explained, “I’ve been sick off and on for weeks.” And one Reddit user detailed how his wife was hospitalized after developing symptoms consistent with liver issues: “extreme fatigue, dark urine, low-grade fever, and whole-body itching with no rash.”

It’s unclear how long Daily Harvest has known about the alleged health issues. The billion-dollar vegan giant launched the product—made from lentils, quinoa, hemp seeds, butternut squash, and cremini mushrooms—on April 28. The company had supposedly been responding to customer complaints about health concerns on social media regarding the lentil crumbles since last Wednesday. Then, on Friday, Daily Harvest sent an email to subscribers with instructions to dump them—at the same time offering a $10 credit for every bag of crumbles purchased, according to NBC News.

On Sunday, the company issued a public statement on their website asking customers “to dispose of the product and not eat it.” And in a move that baffled customers, the brand’s Instagram also posted a promotional image of a bowl of spaghetti topped with the Walnut + Thyme Crumbles along with an ambiguous caption directing users to an “important message” linked in their account bio, which sent them to a separate web page about the lentil product recall.