Ep 106 - Mystery Meat: An FDA Origin Story

The Deadly Dose

This is the epic story of Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, an American chemist who pulled back the curtain on the unregulated, U.S. food industry of the late 1800s. With the assistance of his "Poison Squad" - a group of test subjects who willingly volunteered to eat food preserved with toxic substances such as formaldehyde and borax - and the indirect help of Upton Sinclair's sensational The Jungle, Harvey was finally able to influence the passing of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Try not to listen on an empty stomach, because you may not have an appetite by the end.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.