Swindled! From poison sweets to counterfeit coffee...

-The Dark History of the Food Cheats- by Bee Wilson

Yes, another book review courtesy of yours truly in conjunction with the new book section at the Whitehorse Public Library.

Milk and dairy products tainted with melamine to artificially boost their protein content, children's toys and paint contaminated with lead colourings...sounds like the early 1800's in Britain, doesn't it?

Sadly, these kinds of food and product contaiminations still seem to occur today, as the melamine and lead scandals of China occured just after this book was published in 2007. Is China the Britain of the 2000's?

"Our pickles are made green by copper; our vinegar rendered sharp by sulphuric acid; our cream composed of rice powder or arrow root in bad milk; our comfits (coated dried fruit candy) are mixed of sugar, starch and clay, and coloured with preparations of copper and lead..." Frederick Accum (1769-1838) lamented at the poor state of British food.

Wilson, the author, notes that food has always had the power to kill us as well as sustain us. But at what cost do we adulterate and change food products for a more pleasing appearence to to artificially maintain protein counts?

In this book, an astounding amount of ignorance and slyness combine to stealthily poison the British public for decades, if not centuries. From pickles to children's candy, wine to milk, nothing was safe, ever.

Several men championed for food safety, and it was the initial attempts of Accum (who fell from fame in Britain after 'stealing' pages from a book and not citing others when he used their words, verbatim) that brought these food swindles and poisonings to the forefront.

I think food adulteration can and should be divided into two camps: intentional (adding lead because red food colouring carmine is too expensive, melamine to boost protein) and unintentional (selling pickles coloured with copper because the consumer demands it look extra green)

Even the Americas couldn't escape the nasty grip of food adulterating. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was supposed to be a cry from the proletariat inciting socialism, but instead people leapt on the horrendous conditions of slaughterhouses described within (1905) and were horrified. People falling into rendering vats and turned into lard, tubercular pigs and cows, rotten meat 'polished' for sale to the unsupecting public, rats mixed in sausages, the atrocities were too many to name.

It seems that with introduction of the Food and Drug act (Canada has one too) food adulterating took a sharp turn. No longer are we concerned about corn meal in pure wheat, or boosting cinnamon with a cheaper spice or flour--now we have food that is technically perfect but has not one drop of nutrient. Artifical flavours run rampant in today's food society, and Wilson argues that it isn't 'better' than the previous food adulteration, because what does artifical flavouring give us?

Wilson also provides a nice example of the strawberry milkshake: made by us, with milk, ice cream, sugar and strawberries. Made my McDonald's and you get a witches brew of Amyl Acetate, amyl butyrate, valerate, anethol, anisyl formate... Doesn't sound like edible products, does it?

Wilson ends the book (and there is SO much more, this is a very brief snippet) with an emphatic warning: know where your food comes from, grow it yourself, shop organic if possible. If it sounds too good to be true, it's artifical and probably from China (that's my inference).

You can find it in the new books section at the Whitehorse Public Library.