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The Kitchen Cartel: Pure Food & Drug Act 1906

Conflicted: A History Podcast

CHAPTER

The End of Food Safety in America

In 18 57, 21 people in yorkshire died after eating candy that had been mixed with arsenic by accident. No one was convicted because here was no crime to convict anyone of. In 18 60, britain passed a far reaching adulteration act which clamped down hard on food producers and industrial practices. But the fight was far from overa oss the atlantic,  the situation was much, much worse. The economic vacuum left by the civil war, combined with a revolution and industrial technology, turned every american's pantry into a veritable death trap. It would take a tense and unlikely alliance between a chemist, a novelist and a president to save americ

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