5/22/2023 0 Comments The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum![]() ![]() Wiley (no relation to the publishing company) was a ferocious fighter for food safety. ![]() But US food manufacturers were in for a wild ride when Harvey Wiley became chief chemist for the Department of Agriculture in 1883. ![]() Industrialisation of food production not only made more goods available to more people, but also hailed a time when products were modified with, at best, non-edible ingredients – think floor sweepings in pepper – or, at worst, toxic compounds such as arsenic dyes. Instead of eating produce bought directly from farmers, foregoing ready meals and E numbers, people at the turn of the 20th century were faced with formaldehyde-laced milk, bleached flour and canned vegetables dyed with copper sulfate. Everything was better in the good old days – or was it? It turns out that we have to dismiss any nostalgic ideas we might have of our great-grandparents’ healthy lifestyle. ![]()
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