The story
History
The company was established after founder Rachel Drori, then a marketing executive, identified a personal need for convenient and nutritious meals. She began the business by creating and delivering smoothie packs from her own kitchen before officially launching the business in 2015. Initially focused on ready-to-blend smoothies, the company expanded its product line in 2017 to include soups and subsequently added a variety of other plant-based items, such as harvest bowls and flatbreads.
In 2024, the company began marketing to consumers using GLP-1 medications and entered into a partnership with diet company Noom.
In May of 2025, Chobani purchased Daily Harvest.
2022 recall
In June 2022, Daily Harvest faced a significant public health crisis and brand controversy regarding its French Lentil + Leek Crumbles product. Customers began reporting severe gastrointestinal distress and liver dysfunction after consumption, with symptoms including extreme abdominal pain, fever, and, in several dozen cases, requiring gallbladder removal. After receiving over 470 reports of illness and an investigation was opened by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Daily Harvest issued a voluntary recall of the product.
In July 2022, the company announced that its investigation, conducted in partnership with the FDA, had identified tara flour as the likely source of the illnesses. Tara flour, a high-protein ingredient derived from the tara tree, was a new component in the company's supply chain and was sourced from a single producer for use in the crumbles. The incident led to hundreds of lawsuits filed against Daily Harvest by affected consumers seeking damages for medical bills, lost wages, and other hardships. Two years after the outbreak, the FDA declared tara flour unsafe. The litigation, including the class action, was resolved in early 2025, with payments expected to be made to claimants through the end of the year.
According to Bloomberg and Fortune, the company's handling of the crisis drew widespread criticism from consumers and in media reports. Daily Harvest's initial communication on June 17 was a direct email to customers who had received the product that did not use the word "recall". Several people who spoke to the Fortune reporter said the language didn’t align with the seriousness of the reported illnesses. The company also faced backlash for its social media response, where it initially updated old promotional posts for the crumbles with a link to a statement, rather than creating new, prominent warning posts.
In response to the recall, the company initiated a review of its protocols. In July of 2025, CEO Ricky Silver told Good Housekeeping the company had implemented “a stricter review of ingredients, particularly novel ingredients” and “added checks to ensure historical validation of ingredients in their products in the U.S. market.”
From Wikipedia’s article on Daily Harvest, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6