Well, this is disturbing: The FDA released an alert earlier this week that says some cilantro from Puebla, Mexico, has been contaminated with human feces. And you know what contains cilantro...your beloved guac.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state public health officials noticed that there had been outbreaks of cyclosporiasis, a parasite-caused illness linked to severe diarrhea, for the past few years. After looking into the issue further, they found that the outbreaks appeared to be linked to the consumption of cilantro from Puebla. When the FDA and the Mexican regulatory authorities went on to investigate 11 farms and packing houses in the area, what they found at eight of those facilities wasn't pretty.
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"Conditions observed at multiple such firms in the state of Puebla included human feces and toilet paper found in growing fields and around facilities," according to the FDA's alert. They also found "inadequately maintained and supplied toilet and hand-washing facilities (no soap, no toilet paper, no running water, no paper towels) or a complete lack of toilet and hand-washing facilities; food-contact surfaces (such as plastic crates used to transport cilantro or tables where cilantro was cut and bundled) visibly dirty and not washed; and water used for purposes such as washing cilantro vulnerable to contamination from sewage/septic systems."
All of those people out there who've been saying cilantro is nasty for years are shouting a collective "I told you so" right now.
What's a guac-loving woman to do in the face of this news? You may want to lay off of it for a while...or at least ask where the cilantro in it was grown. (For what it's worth, Chipotle told Bloomberg Business that all of its cilantro comes from California—so you can eat its guac without fear.)
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