TAINTED: From Farm Gate to Dinner Plate, Fifty Years of Food Safety Failures

by Phyllis Entis

In a world where irrigation water is contaminated by run-off from cattle feedlots and where food processors cut corners, the food preparation skills we learned from our parents and grandparents are no longer good enough to keep us safe. Using a variety of foodborne disease outbreaks, often illustrated with the stories of individual victims, TAINTED explores the ways in which food becomes contaminated. Some of the stories–such as the deadly 1993 Jack in the Box outbreak–will be very familiar. Others will not. In this update to her 2007 book, Food Old Habits, New Perspectives , Phyllis Entis draws on nearly five decades of experience to explain how our regulatory systems have failed us, and to talk about what can be done to protect consumers from unsafe food.

Genres: Food

392 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2021

About the author

Phyllis Entis is the author of the Damien Dickens Mysteries series, which includes The Green Pearl Caper, The White Russian Caper, The Chocolate Labradoodle Caper, The Gold Dragon Caper and The Blue Moon Caper. Her debut novel, The Green Pearl Caper, was a Library Journal SELF-e Selection. Phyllis is a free-lance writer and retired food safety microbiologist with degrees from McGill University and the University of Toronto. In 2007, ASM Press published her non-fiction book, Food Safety: Old Habits, New Perspectives.

Phyllis lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada with her husband and their Australian Cobberdog, Shalom. When she’s not writing, Phyllis usually can be found browsing in the local library, or enjoying her garden.

Reviews

[Caroline 'relaxing with my rescue dogs' · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book that you can binge listen but it was really interesting and it has taken me nearly a month. I learnt a lot and thought about some of my practises - even eating raw cookie dough (I know) - this is just an aside though. The stories of the failures and how old wives tales exist but can be updated.

Really really interesting listen.

I was given a free copy by the book club - audible listeners but the review is entirely my own.

[Amy Reade · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an avid fan of Phyllis Entis' mystery novels, I expected this work of non-fiction to be well-written, well-researched, and presented logically. I was not disappointed by this excellent book.

Where to start when talking about the importance of and the information presented in this book? It covers everything from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (Mad Cow disease, but in humans) to Salmonella to Listeria to E. coli to Anthrax and everything in between. It touches on the mystery of Typhoid Mary and delves deep into the investigations in the past decades (and longer, in many cases) of foodborne illnesses that have ravaged the U.S., Canada, and many other parts of the world.

What struck me most while reading this book is how close we are at any given time to a foodborne bacterial or viral outbreak and how amazing it is that it doesn't happen more often. Consumers have to be able to trust that everything in their food supply chain dovetails every day to bring the food we eat from the field safely to the grocery store and into our kitchens. This includes the hand-washing habits of farm employees who milk the cows or harvest the lettuce, the honesty of the people testing the foods, the reliability of the tests, the government oversight, and the habits of the home cook.

I was also really surprised to learn that I had heard about many of the outbreaks discussed in the book—it even includes data and information from as recently as 2020. I am beyond impressed by the research that went into the writing of this book and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in issues of food safety, particularly in North America. The author includes detailed endnotes and a great guide for home cooks for keeping their workspaces and their food free of contamination.

[Alison Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

These days we’re acutely aware of the threats posed by microbes. Although viruses are garnering most of the attention at the moment, this book does an excellent job of reminding us of the dangers of bacterial contamination at every step in the food chain, literally from farm gate to dinner plate. Using detailed, specific examples, the author shows how improper processing and handling of everything from powdered infant formula, to eggs, to produce, to chocolate have caused countless instances of serious food poisoning and even death.

The cases are scary, but the author also spells out steps we can take to protect ourselves, including correct cooking and refrigeration practices and insisting that governmental agencies perform proper inspections of food production facilities. Although written by an expert, the book addresses these serious issues in easily understandable layman’s terms, and as they say, knowledge is power.

[Tony Cundell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding book written by Phyllis Entis, a food microbiologist, for a lay audience, that describes the challenges of food safety in light of microbial contamination of food with intestinal pathogens. This task is made more difficult in that produce is now all-season and globally sourced with divided regulation between the USDA, the FDA and state agencies. As a microbiologist, I found the book beautifully written, highly readable and very informative.