The poison squad one chemist's single-minded crusade for food safety at the turn of the twentieth century

"By the end of the nineteenth century, food in America was increasingly dangerous--lethal, even. Milk and meat were routinely preserved with formaldehyde, a practice based on the embalming of corpses. Beer and wine were preserved with salicylic acid, a pharmaceutical chemical; canned vegetables were...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Blum, Deborah, 1954- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York, New York : Penguin Press, [2018]
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Table of Contents:
  • "I wonder what's in it"
  • Case of characters
  • Introduction
  • Part I
  • A chemical wilderness
  • Cheated, fooled, and bamboozled
  • The beef court
  • What's in it?
  • Only the brave
  • Lessons in food poisoning
  • The yellow chemist
  • The jungle
  • Part II
  • The poison trust
  • Of ketchup and corn syrup
  • Excuses for everything
  • Of whiskey and soda
  • The love microbe
  • The adulteration snake
  • The history of a crime
  • Epilogue.