Photos: The Worst Food Scares in American History

In view of these incidents and the publicity relating to them, the revival of interest in home gardens in the backyard is understandable.

May I ask why the 1991 Jack in the Box E.coli outbreak is not mentioned in your article? It triggered one of the most drastic clean-up of the meat industry (headed by Jack in the Box at that!) but only after dozens of very young children died as a result of contamination. I think it is a very significant event in the history of American food scares, all the more important since the same risks are still very present today. Put simply, the meat packing industry does such a poor job, and keeps such a low level of hygiene in their processing plants that there is feaces in our meat; the average American toilet is cleaner than the average sink after cooking meat. The sanitised look of what we are being sold is very misleading... something to ponder on anyway.

poorly written article. we do irradiate all the time, and they recently found a culprit for the tylenol taintings

Lola!!! Wow!!! !!!!!!!!! And BTW, !!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! Lola! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And BTW, !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Local! I now buy my grass fed beef,pastured eggs, raw milk all from local farmers and will continue to seek out local sources for all of my food needs! The animals are raised on pasture on a natural diet of grass! The more centralized the food system becomes the more food borne illness! Their answer is to radiate and pasteurize everything so they can keep up their dirty practices! The farms I buy from are immaculate and I visit them throughout the year to see for myself what's going on! My family's health has improved greatly!

I second the comment by "Unckle T" the tainted food is generally imported and not checked by the FDA. They have been letting a lot of medication killing people pass as well, the Distruibutors and the Pharmaceuticals have too much power.

We never had a problem with food poisoning until we started importing food from nations that water their produce with contaminated water or washed in dirty water. Any salmonella originating here is because the FDA is spread too thin and can't police evrything. We just have to place severe penalties on our suppliers who don't distribute tainted food..

# 1 photo to scary, Yet I have to eat and drink.

# 1 photo was just to scary.

No way this is terrorism. If it were, there would be a lot more deaths. It is, as was said earlier all about money and poor work ethic. If inspectors would do their jobs and companies weren't so money hungry, none of this would have happened at all.

Can't remember all the details; but, surprised not to see cranberries on the list. Seems to me it was sometime in the 1960s.