included chemicals like formaldehyde,

borax and copper sulfate.

That is until one guy organized a Poison Supper Club

to stop it and became the father of the FDA.

OK, here's the story.

In order to keep food looking fresh,

food manufacturers used a slew of chemicals.

Copper sulfate, a common pesticide,

made canned peas bright green.

Borax and formaldehyde were packed with meat

to make it appear fresher.

At this time in our history,

there were no true food regulations.

You didn't need to label your ingredients.

There was no safety testing, no monitoring.

Cue Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, a chemist with the crazy idea

that these chemicals had no place in our food.

He started some hygienic lab trials

where he could officially test the effects

of these poisons on the body.

It was easy to get the chemicals,

but he needed the bodies.

And that's where the Poison Squad came in.

The first 12 members of the Poison Squad

were volunteers from the Department of Agriculture

and they volunteered to eat his poisoned food for six months

so he could track the effects it had on them.

Each day, the menus would change

and Wiley's volunteers never knew which poison

they were consuming.

A dinner at the Poison Supper Club might look like this.

Applesauce, soup, turkey, canned stringed beans,

sweet potatoes, white potatoes, chipped beef,

bread and butter, coffee, rice pudding

and a little borax.

Throughout the trials, Wiley noted signs of acute poisoning

including upset stomachs, nausea, diarrhea,

vomiting, kidney damage, you know,

things that happen when you get poisoned.

And this did not stay hidden.

The press caught on and in 1906,

the first food regulations were passed.

This ultimately led to the creation of the FDA.

So thanks, Dr. Wiley.

Our food is so much better without all that borax.