Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food

In the winter of 1993 in America, children who ate hamburgers from the Jack in the Box chain fell ill. E. coli in the meat killed four children and made hundreds seriously sick. The case opened the country's argument about food safety. This documentary follows the line from that event to now: which regulations came, which did not, and why the same bacteria still spread the same ways. Stephanie Soechtig's film rests on Jeff Benedict's book of the same name. At the centre of the narrative is the lawyer Bill Marler, who represented a child in the Jack in the Box case and has worked on foodborne illness cases ever since. The film rests on interviews with experts and with the families of the children who died. How the inspection system works and how the industry lobbies are taken as direct subjects. Who it's for: Viewers of documentaries about food safety, regulatory policy, and consumer rights. Who it's not for: The families' accounts are heavy and some passages are sickening. The film is openly one-sided and gives no room to the industry's defence.