The Poison Squad

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. But US food manufacturers were in for a wild ride when Harvey Wiley became chief chemist for the Department of Agriculture in 1883.

Wiley (no relation to the publishing company) was a ferocious fighter for food safety. He captured the public’s attention with his human tests on harmful additives such as borax, benzoate, formaldehyde and salicylates. The group of young men who volunteered for these trials – consuming ever-increasing doses and often becoming ill in the process – was dubbed the poison squad. Deborah Blum’s book of the same title is an account of Wiley’s life.