Book Log 2009 #53: Swindled by Bee Wilson

A really interesting history of fraudulent food, from doctored wine in ancient Rome to fake eggs made in China. At each stop along the way, Wilson does a fantastic job of describing how food was tampered with and how people and governments reacted at the time (suffice it to say that governments, until very recently, did very little).

It's a great mirror on our own food production, and how the obvious cheats of the past have morphed into the variety of additives that get into our food today. Well worth a read if you're into this sort of thing.