A few months after reports linking severe liver damage to its French Lentil + Leek Crumbles dish, delivery company Daily Harvest has laid off 15 percent of its employees.
The news was delivered during an August 5 all-hands meeting, as reported by Fortune. Employees were told the layoffs were linked to inflationary conditions and planned long before the lentil crumbles scandal.
The layoffs were also addressed in a company-wide email from CEO Rachel Drori, according to Layoffs Tracker. Less than 50 workers will be affected.
Daily Harvest, based in New York City, was valued at $1.1 billion at the end of 2021, with Drori securing a spot on Forbes’s 2022 list of America’s richest self-made women.
But in June concerning social media posts began to circulate from lentil crumble consumers who were hospitalized or underwent gallbladder surgery after eating the product.
In July, the company revealed tara flour to be the ingredient linked to these gastrointestinal issues, announcing an ongoing investigation into the lentil crumbles with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and tara flour producer.
Daily Harvest declined to comment.
