Food poisoning and unsafe temperatures: Many meal kit companies aren't FDA regulated
LOS ANGELES — Days after trying a new lentil product from the meal subscription company Daily Harvest, Los Angeles resident Jackie Sloboda was debilitated by full-body itching, stabbing abdominal pains and jaundice that turned her skin and eyes yellow.
On her third day in a West L.A. hospital, as she worried that she was dying of liver failure, Sloboda, 36, learned that the product she had eaten twice had just been recalled. Soon, hundreds of people in 36 states would report gastrointestinal pain and abnormal liver function, and 113 would be hospitalized, the highest number of any known U.S. foodborne illness outbreak this year, according to federal data.
"I've been run over by a car before, and this was more painful," said Sloboda, who is still suffering from fatigue two months later. "Awful doesn't even begin to describe it. I'm upset, I'm angry, and I'm anxious for the future of my health."
The Daily Harvest case is the first widespread instance of foodborne illness reported in the $15-billion meal kit industry, which has surged in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak has shone a light on something that few consumers know: Most meal delivery companies are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
Of the hundreds of companies that ship ready-to-heat meals or recipe kits to U.S. consumers, very few are required to register with the FDA. The firms are also not required to follow a slew of FDA
