Hold the Cilantro please

[Red Oak]

There’s more than just cilantro in the growing fields in Mexico, and that’s caused the Food and Drug Administration to institute a partial import ban on it through August.

The move comes after health officials found human feces and toilet paper in growing fields, which have been linked to hundreds of intestinal illnesses dating back to 2012.

The FDA will focus on product coming from Puebla, and all of it will need to be manually inspected and certified before being allowed into the U.S. Cilantro from other parts of the country will need to have documentation proving it did not come from Puebla.

In the report, the FDA outlines a number of different sources for the contamination after 11 farms and packing houses were inspected by both U.S. and Mexican officials.

Conditions observed at multiple such firms in the state of Puebla included human feces and toilet paper found in growing fields and around facilities; 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.

Both Yum! Brands, which owns Taco Bell, and Chipotle told Bloomberg they don’t expect their cilantro supply to be impacted by the ban.

[millergrovesue]

Ah cilantro - that herb that sparks such strong opinions. I despise cilantro. Tastes like pencil lead to me. Guess I'm spared the human feces and TP.

[BillB]

I can do without cilantro and think I will.

[crocmommy]

Ah cilantro - that herb that sparks such strong opinions. I despise cilantro. Tastes like pencil lead to me. Guess I'm spared the human feces and TP.

Heh...I knew you'd have an opinion.

I am not a big cilantro fan. A little goes a LOOOOOOONG way.

[Jami]

I LOVE cilantro!

[Red Oak]

I grow my own, and no I do not crap in it

[millergrovesue]

Ah cilantro - that herb that sparks such strong opinions. I despise cilantro. Tastes like pencil lead to me. Guess I'm spared the human feces and TP.

Heh...I knew you'd have an opinion.

I am not a big cilantro fan. A little goes a LOOOOOOONG way.

Yeah, you know how much I hate that stuff.

[ann jusko]

I don't like it either. My choice of entrees goes way down because, no matter how many times I tell them "No cilantro" they forget (I guess). I don't make a big fuss, just spend my time picking it out and never going back there again. I'm so blessed to have girlfriends who now automatically reach over and get the lemon off my glass of tea. If it's already IN the tea, it goes back. I'd warned my kids that allergies can run in families. All of them have said they've had no problem....TILL my daughter was having breakfast and had orange juice. She'd had orange juice for years BUT this time...it hit her....throat swelled, she couldn't speak or breathe. Her husband is a police officer and recognized it immediately, thank God.