Weeks after Daily Harvest announced the voluntary recall of its French Lentil and Leek Crumbles, the company said on Tuesday that it had identified the ingredient suspected to be causing the mysterious illness reported by hundreds of customers.

"At this time, we have identified tara flour as the cause of the issue," Daily Harvest founder and CEO Rachel Drori said in a company blog post Tuesday afternoon. Tara flour is made from the seeds of tara trees, which are native to South America.

"This was the first and only time we've used tara flour, which has been available and used in the North American market as a plant-based source of protein prior to our use," Drori added. "Our investigation team will continue working with the [US Food and Drug Administration], the tara flour producer and others to help determine what specifically made people sick."

The FDA said in a statement last week that its "investigation is ongoing" into the reports of illness linked to the product.