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I’ve consistently gotten a bad reaction to fresh dill (lip/mouth/face swelling, itching/burning sensation) so after a few occasions like that I am very careful to avoid it.

Recently while traveling in Europe, I accidentally had a dish with dill and... nothing happened. I was curious enough that I bought dill from the store and tried it directly, still absolutely fine.

The only explanation I can think of is that my reaction is not to dill itself but to something, probably a pesticide, which is only used in the USA but not allowed for use in Europe (EU). What pesticide could it be?

(As far as I know, it’s just dill - I may have gotten a similar reaction from mizuna once, but leafy greens like spinach, lettuce etc as well as other fresh spices like parsley, cilantro etc are fine)

Alex I
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  • Could it be possible to precise your experience about dried dill please ? Also have you tried cooking with it, thoroughly washing it under clear water before everything ? – Marck Jul 07 '23 at 10:59
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    Also I just realized you could be asking on [Medical Science](https://medicalsciences.stackexchange.com/), they might provide more answers since it's also about your health. – Marck Jul 07 '23 at 12:23
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    @Marck please don't post answers to closable questions, especially those which require medical advice. The question would also be closed on Medical Science Stack Exchange, for the same reason - they don't provide personal advice about one's illnesses. – rumtscho Jul 07 '23 at 12:44
  • @rumtscho okay my bad, sorry, and thanks for the advice, I will keep it in mind. (I'll delete this exact comment in about an hour since it is not asking for clarification) – Marck Jul 07 '23 at 12:50
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    @Marck it's OK; I now realize that you're quite new here and may not know the somewhat arcane list of on-topic and off-topic areas. It's summarized under https://cooking.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic. We are the strictest with health-related advice, since we can't ensure that the answers (or the votes on them) are correct. – rumtscho Jul 07 '23 at 12:53
  • @rumtscho I fully understand, it makes total sense. I read the linked article in your comment, thank you for the information ! – Marck Jul 07 '23 at 13:09
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    I disagree with the reason for closing: the question is about food (and possibly food contaminants), not about medical advice or nutrition. Medicine is obviously not a fit since the question is about chemical use in farming, not about disease per se. If there was an agriculture stack exchange, it might be a perfect fit for that. Since there isn’t, which stack exchange do you think is a fit? – Alex I Jul 07 '23 at 13:33
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    tbh, this isn't answerable anywhere. All we have to go on is an unresearched hypothesis as to a cause. Until you have actual clarification as to the cause, from a proper medical authority, then trying to figure out which pesticide is used where simply isn't an answer to your underlying issue. It may turn out that two continents just grow different strains of dill, like they do apples, or potatoes. – Tetsujin Jul 07 '23 at 14:18
  • @AlexI on our site, questions of the type "what causes my symptoms" are something we close, because we can do no better than guess, and we refuse to guess when it comes to somebody having medical symptoms. What headline you give to these questions is immaterial. The pesticide angle is accidental, and also off topic for Cooking. I don't know of any agricultural site on the network, and if there was one, it probably wouldn't answer list-type questions, since they are forbidden on the whole network. – rumtscho Jul 07 '23 at 16:13
  • @rumtscho The question is not “what causes my symptoms” but rather “what pesticides are only used in the USA but not EU” (and likely to remain on dill but not on other greens). Discussion about symptoms is only there by way of background; it may be important to me but certainly was not part of the question. Sorry if that was unclear. In any case, it seems like you’re not interested in talking about pesticides here, so I won’t try to force the topic although I completely disagree with the reasons for the closure. – Alex I Jul 07 '23 at 20:41
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    It’s possible that there is more than one plant known as ‘dill’. (Eg, mexican ‘oregano’ vs Greek ‘oregano’, or ‘Ceylon cinnamon’ vs cassia ‘cinnamon’). I believe that American wheat has been crossed with some sort of grass to make it easier to grow, but may be the cause of the prevalence of wheat intolerance issues (along with lack of significant fermentation time as we moved to faster rising methods) – Joe Jul 07 '23 at 22:01

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