Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food: Must Watch

The food in your kitchen cabinets may not be what it seems. Fraudsters motivated by economic gain secretly infiltrate the global food market through a variety of means, including counterfeits, dilutions, substitution and mislabeling, according to the Global Food Safety Initiative. This may not only harm consumers’ wallets, but it can also put public health and safety at risk. Some estimates say food fraud affects at least 1% of the global food industry at a cost as high as $40 billion a year, according to the FDA.
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?