Tara Flour

Tara flour is the tara-tree-seed ingredient in The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food. The episode says it appeared in Daily Harvest lentil and leek crumbles and in another smoothie product, after which consumers reported severe illness and some lost gallbladders.

The ingredient is the wiki’s clearest case so far for Secret GRAS. In the source’s account, tara flour entered the U.S. food supply without prior [[FoodAndDrugAdministration|FDA]] notice, so regulators learned about it after harm reports rather than through ordinary Premarket Food Safety Review.

The supply-chain story links [[MolinosPeru|Molinos]], which had made tara gum and later manufactured tara flour, to U.S. importer Smirks and then to Daily Harvest. Bill Marler argues that the safety evidence was too thin for such a new food ingredient.

Connections

• Daily Harvest - consumer product using the ingredient.
• Secret GRAS, GRAS Self-Certification, and Food Additive Regulation - regulatory path.
• Post-Harm Food Regulation - reactive pattern illustrated by the case.
• Smirks and [[MolinosPeru|Molinos]] - importer and producer in the source’s supply chain.
• Bill Marler - attorney who used litigation to investigate the ingredient.