As you stroll the aisles of your local grocery store, you might contemplate buying romaine, precut cantaloupe, that “safe-to-eat” tub of cookie dough, Lucky Charms, some chicken breast. Yet all of these foods — and, disturbingly, many more — can carry contaminates that make us sick. Unfortunately, things like E. coli, salmonella, and toxic waste simply aren’t listed on the label of ground beef chuck. While the US suffers through these outbreaks each week (up to 36 every seven days, affecting 48 million people a year), are the food and agricultural industries taking accountability for their mistakes?
In the documentary film Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food, filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig (The Devil We Know) examines the food industry in the United States and investigates how its systemic fractures lead to outbreaks of foodborne pathogens –– and deadly consequences.
Scroll to the top of this article to watch the trailer.
The documentary explores the broken social contract between food supplier and consumer. Soechtig’s film delves into the history of food regulation and foodborne illnesses, like the first major US E. coli O157 outbreak in 1993 that led to a number of children’s deaths and a renewed sense of urgency about food regulations. In chronicling this and more recent food outbreaks, Poisoned sheds light on how the bacteria in what we consume can cause fatal diseases. The film unearths food companies’ cover-up attempts, reveals disturbing truths about America’s food supply system, and details criminal prosecutions that have resulted from these contaminations. Our policymakers and food industry execs have been unrelenting in suggesting America’s food is “the safest in the world,” but how can they protect us when it isn’t?
Yes. It’s based on Jeff Benedict’s book Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. Coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat.
