In 1996, twenty-eight people attended business reunions at a private club in Houston. Sixteen of them suffered from a rare gastrointestinal disease caused by a parasite, discovered less than twenty years ago, known as cyclospora cayetanensis. The main symptoms of the disease are strong diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, fever, and extreme fatigue.

The Texas Health Department determined that strawberries were served, both at the Houston club and at a restaurant in which a similar contamination was discovered. Consequently, all strawberry shipments were returned to California.

In July, the California State Department, after analyzing samples of various strawberry plantations, concluded that none of them contained traces of cyclospora.

It was at this point that Guatemala entered the scene, for the California State Department indicated that new studies suggested it was the raspberries imported from Guatemala and Chile that might be the real culprits. The CDC examined shipments of Guatemalan raspberries, but found they contained no traces of cyclospora.

Charles Sterling, from the Veterinary Science Department at University of Arizona, was seemingly responsible for solving the mystery. He stated that the fruits were not the route of contamination; it was the water ingested by the affected population. Sterling concluded that every prior episode of contamination occurred near the water, either a lake, a water deposit at a building, or a basement with sewer-contaminated water.

Official investigation in the United States has not been concluded but, according to the expert Doctor Sterling, it will be hard to find anything when searching in the wrong place. Meanwhile, because of the unfounded accusations, berry producers have suffered enormous financial losses.