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UPDATE: August 3, 6:15 p.m.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, a total of 358 people have become ill with cyclosporiasis this year, with more than 56 percent occurring on or after May 1. Clusters of these cases have been found in Texas, Wisconsin, and Georgia with cilantro as the primary suspect for causing sickness. Investigations are ongoing, and more information about the parasitic illness are available on the CDC website; however we must urge you to be wary of your cilantro purchases. If it hails from Mexico, consider tossing the bunch and searching for herbs grown in California or other domestic regions.
UPDATE: July 30, 9:30 a.m.
Walmart and Kroger, the country's two largest grocery chains, are pulling cilantro from store shelves. A Walmart representative tells Bloomberg that while the company's cilantro supplier hails from Puebla, Mexico—where soiled crops were found—it was not affected. Kroger has recalled cilantro at about 440 stores mainly in the Southeast and plans to restock with herbs from other regions.
If your cilantro hails from Mexico, consider throwing it out. On Monday U.S. health officials put a ban on the herb after finding human feces and toilet paper in south-of-the-border herb fields—a discovery now being linked to hundreds of illnesses dating back to 2012.
To prevent more outbreaks of cyclosporiasis, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detained Mexican cilantro at the border and declared anofficial ban on imports on Monday.
Cyclosporiasis is typically found in the tropics and subtropics and is not common in the U.S. That said, it induces "prolonged and severe diarrheal illness," according to the Centers for Disease Control, and 304 people were affected last year in the states. Though no deaths were reported, seven people had to be hospitalized.
Upon closer inspection, authorities found that eight out of 11 farms in Puebla, Mexico, did not provide adequate hand washing and sanitation facilities to workers. In fact, some farms didn't have a restroom at all. "The most likely routes of contamination of fresh cilantro are contact with the parasite shed from the intestinal tract of humans affecting the growing fields, harvesting, processing, or packing activities or contamination with the parasite through contaminated irrigation water, contaminated crop protectant sprays, or contaminated wash waters," the FDA's alert said.
Our advice: Check your herbs' country of origin. While many markets and restaurants source from Mexico, others purchase from California, like Chipotle and (the blessed) Taco Bell.
