Summary
To better understand the dangers of food poisoning and how best to avoid it, Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food concisely takes audiences through major cases throughout recent US memory.
Here is our review of the 2023 Netflix documentary film Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food, released on August 2nd, 2023.
Everyone loves a good burger. Whether it’s from a preferred fast-food chain or bespoke restaurant, that burger and the salad alongside it could put you in the hospital or even worse, kill you. That’s the message that the Netflix documentary Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food gets across to its viewers, and it does so very effectively.
Its aim isn’t to say that audiences shouldn’t eat certain types of food because they’re unhealthy or that some audiences previously thought were good for them but aren’t, but to highlight the careless practices that companies engage with in regard to food safety. This documentary is more of an in-depth public service announcement.
Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food Review
The documentary takes audiences through different food poisoning scandals that have taken place in the USA in recent memory.
The stories are told from several different perspectives, with interviews from food lawyers, politicians, regulators, scientists, parents of victims, and the businesses involved. They’re all very informative, giving an easy-to-understand and harrowing account of what happened.
One of the biggest takeaways is that the regulatory framework is tied up in knots, with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) having competing and unclear jurisdictions over certain products, the regulation itself not having strong enough teeth, and, of course, the lobbyists who want to keep it that way.
In the end, the documentary gets very emotional when Stephanie, a survivor of E. coli poisoning, is interviewed. She tells the story of how the food poisoning she experienced will have a long-lasting effect on her life and that it’s not a bad day or week people will go through if they get it.
It’s very thorough and investigative, with the filmmakers managing to get interviews with the Deputy Under Secretary of the USDA and the Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response from the FDA, conducting their own tests for salmonella on chicken, and even having an anonymous USDA interviewee reveal some very disturbing practices that the regulatory body engages in when it comes to chicken.
While this might cause audiences to become nervous the next time they order a McDonald’s burger or eat some chicken, the documentary’s objective isn’t to scare viewers. It highlights better ways to handle raw chicken, for example, and at the end, it includes some foods viewers can avoid to promote their own food safety.
Instead, Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food wants to shock audiences into taking action against these powerful food companies by pressuring legislators to bring in better regulation.
Is Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food good or bad?
This documentary film is a highly informative watch, even for viewers outside of the USA who think they have safer food regulations.
Is Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food worth watching?
Taking audiences through several food poisoning scandals with both saddening and infuriating stories, Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food is a well-told and structured documentary about how big food companies handle some of what we eat.
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