Thoughts about "Poisoned"

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The Netflix documentary “Poisoned” came out August 2nd, it is based on a book by the same name, written by Jeff Benedict. The documentary details some of the worst U.S food borne illness outbreaks of the past forty years including Jack in the Box, romaine lettuce, and peanut butter. The documentary makers avoid any sort of clinical detachment by detailing the stories of the victims and interviewing their families, which makes it especially heartbreaking.

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1.Reactions on Twitter/X seem to predictably be centered around fears about food, “guess this means I won’t be eating Romaine lettuce, chicken or hamburger” and “…#Poisoned got me scared to death to eat anything.”…as well anger directed toward the various governmental agencies involved with food safety, or lack thereof. Helena Bottemiller Evich of Food Fix Co summarizes the documentary and some of the reactions she’s heard about it.

2. Creating Villains - Creative lighting, music and specific editing of responses serves to underline the sharp dichotomy between the documentary’s food safety champions and those meant to be viewed as food safety villains (the CEOs of the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement & Perdue, representatives of USDA, FDA).

❗From Tamika Sims, PhD, Senior Director of Food Technology Communications at the International Food and Information Council (IFIC): "…No one should live in fear of their food…the latest IFIC Food and Health Survey found that roughly 70% of US consumers are confident in the safety of our food system; we believe that the goal of all food system stakeholders, including consumer advocates, should be to see this number reach 100%.” Sims added, “While the Poisoned documentary seeks to elevate food safety, it also undermines the daily actions of many dedicated food system stakeholders focused on consumer food safety. We must work closely together to identify all opportunities to both educate consumers and promote a culture of food safety throughout the food system to ensure positive public health outcomes and consumer trust.”  

Resources:

For food safety information see FightBAC! and resources by Food Insight (IFIC)

For a useful app that provides food safety info like storing times, safe cooking temperatures and alerts about food safety recalls download FoodKeeper App