What’s On Your Plate? A History of Food Fraud and Crime

Food fraud? When we dive into a burger or eat a lovely piece of chicken, the furthest thing on our mind is that it could be harmful.

But beneath the surface of what we eat lies a very unappetizing truth. Deception, danger, and downright crime.

Today’s diets are riddled with food adulteration and additives; we are always cautious about what we put into our bodies. There was a time we trusted our food without question, leading us to follow and consume everything.

Sawdust in your coffee. Multimillion-dollar syrup heists. The history of food fraud features the worst of human ingenuity. Forcing change and reforms in the food laws.

Let’s take a walk through the darker side of the table.

*This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for supporting this site and helping me keep ancient food stories alive. Learn more.*

Adulterated and Food Fraud

Before ingredient labels and food safety laws were commonplace, deception in food was normal. Discrepancies were hard to spot.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ground foods were especially vulnerable. Coffee could have (gasp!) sawdust, roasted wheat, or even dandelion seeds. Spices like cinnamon contained charred rope, coconut shells, or sweepings that looked like powder.

One of the most disturbing cases was New York City’s “Swill Milk” scandal of the 1850s. Cows were fed on waste from distilleries. Sellers thickened the thin, bluish milk with plaster of Paris or starch to mimic quality. It was cheap as well as deadly.

We are still dealing with food fraud today. A good example is olive oil, which has long been one of the most counterfeited products in the world. Some inferior or even unsafe oils are sold as premium “extra virgin.” In some cases, this trade has been linked to organized crime networks.

Another scandal, in 2013, Europeans discovered that beef products in supermarkets contained undeclared horse meat. My husband is one of the victims. While in Copenhagen, Denmark, he would purchase what looked like a fresher, redder mound of ground beef, but it was horse meat. He only found out months later, after he had eaten quite a few homemade hamburgers. A nasty reminder that supply chains can still hide uncomfortable truths. In actual fact, he couldn’t read the Danish label – so in a sense it was self-deception!

And finally, a whale of a true story… My student-husband stopped at a deli market in Copenhagen in the early 1970s and bought whale meat (and it was legal at the time) to go. He described it as tasting like fish but with the texture of a chewy beef steak, wreaking havoc on his palate.  

Deadly Food Frauds

Danger went beyond deception. It was a fatal error or a misunderstanding.

In England in 1858, a terrible mistake led to the deadliest food poisoning incident in history. A distracted confectioner accidentally used arsenic in sweets. After over 20 people died, the horrid disaster helped push for early food safety laws.

Not all food fears were justified. In the 1700s, tomatoes earned a reputation as “poisonous” among European aristocrats. The real culprit wasn’t the fruit; it was the pewter plates. When combined with acidic tomato juice, the dishes leaked lead.

What about absinthe, the infamous “Green Fairy” banned across much of Europe and the United States in the early 20th century? The potent drink was blamed for hallucinations and violent behavior. Modern research suggests those fears were exaggerated.

Notable Food Crimes

There have been many “Kit Kat” incidents in history. Over 12 tons, or about 400,000 bars, were stolen from a truck in Europe just recently and are still missing. Those of you who love this candy are already missing it.

Food is big business. And where there’s value, crime comes in through the front door.

In 2012, Quebec thieves carried out an unusual heist by stealing 540,000 gallons of maple syrup worth $13.4 million. They siphoned syrup from barrels and replaced it with water. The crime went undetected for months.

Not surprising. Cheese is one of the most stolen food items globally. Organized thefts have seen huge truckloads, worth thousands of dollars, vanish overnight.

And of course, in the world of fine dining, fraud is as refined as the product itself. Rudy Kurniawan, a celebrated wine collector, was a master counterfeiter who sold millions of dollars in fake vintage wines to elite buyers.

History’s Famous Last Meals

Food also plays a role in the darkest final moments of many famous or infamous people. The “last meal” tradition for condemned prisoners reveals they take comfort in what’s familiar.

John Wayne Gacy requested a feast: fried shrimp, fried chicken, fries, and strawberries. Timothy McVeigh chose two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Velma Barfield’s final request was Cheez Doodles and a Coca-Cola.

And in popular movie lore, Hannibal Lecter enjoyed a little Chianti with his victims. 

In this gruesome goodbye scene, food reflects identity, nostalgia, and a final grasp at normalcy.

Taboo Foods

Some foods carry histories that are harder to digest.

Mexico’s traditional Pozole found its origins in Aztec rituals, where it may have been cooked with the flesh of sacrificed warriors. Far from the dish we know today.

Sugar and rum, once symbols of luxury, are tied to the transatlantic slave trade. Molasses was exchanged for enslaved people, who were forced to toil in brutal sugarcane fields.

Eating dog meat is taboo in much of the Western world, where dogs are companions and part of the family. However, it was once consumed in some regions of East Asia. Attitudes are swiftly changing, and bans are increasing. Our visit to Hanoi, Vietnam’s wet market, had hanging what we thought were pigs, which were, in actual fact on closer inspection, man’s best friends.

Watch Your Plate

Many of these scandals led to the strong regulations we rely on today. Ingredient labeling, safety inspections, and consumer protections are among the examples. But they are also reminders to stay vigilant about what we eat.

Maybe the best advice is caveat emptor!

Explore more in our Food Spotlights or subscribe to our newsletter for weekly stories and recipes inspired by history. Taste the rest of the story.

Selected Sources and Further Reading

• Overview of food safety laws and the evolution of regulation following adulteration scandals. – U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Articles covering historical food fraud, including the Swill Milk scandal and early adulteration practices. – Smithsonian Magazine
• Reports on modern food fraud issues, such as olive oil mislabeling and the horsemeat scandal. – European Commission

Note to my readers:
My research draws on travel experiences, books, and, sometimes, AI tools. I love using my own photos whenever possible, but occasionally I include stock or AI-generated images to help illustrate the story.