Product Description

Salmonella . . . toxins . . . additives . . . food scares . . . Have you ever wondered how our food has become so untrustworthy? Have we ever been able to trust what we eat?

Via a fascinating mix of food politics, history and culinary detective work, Bee Wilson uncovers the many methods by which swindlers have tampered with our food throughout history. From the leaded wine of ancient Rome to the food piracy of the twenty-first century we see the extraordinary ways food has been padded, poisoned, spiked, coloured, substituted, faked and mislabelled everywhere it has been sold. Bee Wilson reveals the strong historical currents which enable the fraudsters to flourish; the battle of the science of deception against the science of detection; the struggle to establish reliable standards. She also suggests some small ways in which we can all protect ourselves from swindles and learn to trust what we eat again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #157711 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 370 pages

Customer Reviews

Gripping story of food, greed and corruption
This is a fantastic book. If you have enjoyed reading any of hte various other recent accounts of what has gone wrong with food in the course of the past hundred years -- such as Michael Pollan's In Praise of Food -- then this will be a mnst-buy. But Iw ould recommend reading Wilson over Pollan and the others. Wilson lacks Pollan's smugness, and writes more wittily., and takes a much longer (and betteer-informed) historical view She reminds us that attempts to "taint" food with false ingredients are almost as old as human history: there have always been greed and avarice, and food sellers have always been out for a quick buck. This historical and sociological awareness allows her to put her finger on precisely what is distinctive about modern food scares and modern junk food. Wilson makes a convincing case that we in the west, perhaps especially in Britain (for distinctive historical reasons), have lost even a concept of what real food should be: what, for instance, are the proper ingredients of a loaf of bread. A particularly illuminating chapter reminds us that for most ofhuman history, wine has been adulterated (to hide the fact that it was usually very bad), but bread wa usually pure -- when people put sand in hte bread, it was an obvious adulterante. Now, things are the other way around We hardly know what it would mean to purchase "pure" bread; all supermarket loaves are full of mysterious e-numbers. If you have any interest in what you eat, you have to read this book; buying a loaf of bread will never be the same. I am not a foodie or a food history buff, but I found this book totally gripping, both as an account of food, and also as a study in human nature. It reads like a detective story: the kind where you know that everybody is out to cheat everybody else, but there is some guiding and charming intelligence, in this case Wilson's, which will make it all make sense; , and even turns a story of corruption into something like comfort reading. Wilson is both earnedly serious about social and ethical evils, and also very funny. Swindling is one of the great comic subjects of all time, maybe because it's so horrid to get swindled. I couldn't put this book down till I finished it. An easy five stars!

My BOOK OF THE YEAR?
This could quite easily become my BOOK OF THE YEAR.

We are all familiar with the frequent reports of food crises which are the bread and butter of journalists from both tabloids and broadsheets, and many of us can remember the Salmonella in eggs scare that Edwina Currie was involved in, and John Gummer feeding his child beef during the BSE crises - the sensationalism of the media and the way in which the stories were covered sold a lot of newspapers.

There is however not one whiff of sensationalism in this rather splendid book by Bee Wilson which, despite some considerable delving into the politics and industrial games involved in food production, is an absolute page turner.

I think the average reader will finish reading this book having learnt a great deal more than he or she expected, and no doubt feeling more alert to his or her environment.

Despite the nastiness of some of the swindles and the unsavoury qualities of some of the adulterants that Bee Wilson writes about, this book does not leave a bad taste in the mouth, on the contrary I rather feel happier about going out to buy my food.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

All the right ingredients and a pinch of salt
Science, history and current affairs combined with an author who has a natural flair for story-telling makes this book a hit in my estimation. One could say that it's the perfect confection. But enough with the puns (or buns) already! It's a pleasure to read. I always understood what she was saying and rarely had to re-read the odd sentence here or there. I only wish her other book weren't about bee-keeping! Such a dull subject. A waste of a fine author's talents.

Anyway, I must mention the dust jacket. It is fantastic! A real delight. It won me over in the shop whereas without it I would have been in two minds as to whether to buy this book on the strength of the blurb and subject matter alone. It's not really relevant to reviewing a book if one is a stickler for literature, but I think reading a book should be viewed as a more 'holistic' experience. The feel and look of a book, how it is presented, is important. Along those same lines the font is nice and big and I liked the illustrations too.

And then she goes and spoils it all by saying something stupid like (p.51) "lead is delicious. Those Victorian children gnawing on their lead pencils ... were satisfying a craving for sweetness." Hello?! Did I just read that? Yes! Yes, it's there in black and white on the page in front of me! Oh dear. Such a shame. Pencils are made from graphite, Ms Wilson, not from lead. Have been since the sixteenth century at least. Lead is not graphite. Not even similar. There is not a trace of lead in graphite. Unless some unscrupulous Dickensian businessman was adulterating them with lead...

Some of the chemical names were rendered inaccurately too. I mean in terms of erroneous capitalisations and gaps before or after hyphens. But she's not a chemist, so I forgive her. But if she's careless and inaccurate about these things (or should I blame the editors?), which I did happen to pick up on, what else is she wrong about that I missed? It sows doubt in my mind. Must I take her other words with a pinch of salt?

But overall I do still like this book, even if there is too much emphasis placed on American food scandals. (Why does everything have to be about America?) I would also have liked a bit more early history; the history is skewed towards the twentieth century. The cover sort of led me to expect a more historical investigation. I liked the medieval section of the book, though it was disappointingly short. The science is a bit watered-down too. Wilson's in her element as an investigative journalist, I think. However, she combines the different disciplines seamlessly.

However, I should not be so disparaging about this predominantly excellent book. Its salutary lessons have made me think about what I eat and may even affect my diet henceforth. I think I will take on board much of what she has brought to my attention, especially the slightly sinister marketing tricks of food manufacturers and the hidden processing additives, such as enzymes, which don't appear on any labels. I was also surprised about the poor nutritional content of 'fresh' fruit and vegetables compared to only a few decades ago. I'm glad I read this book. On a related note, I would also recommend Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets and Not on the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate.