Moses Greeley Parker Memorial Library (Dracut)

Canned, The rise and fall of consumer confidence in the American food industry, Anna Zeide

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Canned

bibliography

Anna Zeide

The rise and fall of consumer confidence in the American food industry

A century and a half ago, when the food industry was first taking root, few consumers trusted packaged foods. Americans had just begun to shift away from eating foods that they grew themselves or purchased from neighbors. With the advent of canning, consumers were introduced to foods produced by unknown hands and packed in corrodible metal that seemed to defy the laws of nature by resisting decay. Since that unpromising beginning, the American food supply has undergone a revolution, moving away from a system based on fresh, locally grown goods to one dominated by packaged foods. How did this come to be? How did we learn to trust that food preserved within an opaque can was safe and desirable to eat? Anna Zeide reveals the answers through the story of the canning industry, taking us on a journey to understand how food industry leaders leveraged the powers of science, marketing, and politics to win over a reluctant public, even as consumers resisted at every turn

Condensed milk: The development of the early canning industry -- Growing a better pea: Canners, farmers, and agricultural scientists in the 1910s and 1920s -- Poisoned olives: Consumer fear and expert collaboration -- Grade A tomatoes: Labeling debates and consumers in the New Deal -- Fighting for safe tuna: Postwar challenges to processed food -- BPA in Cambell's soup: New threats to an entrenched food system