num_pages: 280
description: 2019 James Beard Foundation Book Award Reference History and ScholarshipA century and a half ago when the food industry was first taking root few consumers trusted packaged foods. Americans had just begun to shift away from eating foods that they grew themselves or purchased from neighbors. With the advent of canning consumers were introduced to foods produced by unknown hands and packed in corrodible metal that seemed to defy the laws of nature by resisting decay. Since that unpromising beginning the American food supply has undergone a revolution moving away from a system based on fresh locally grown goods to one dominated by packaged foods. How did this come to be? How did we learn to trust that food preserved within an opaque can was safe and desirable to eat? Anna Zeide reveals the answers through the story of the canning industry taking us on a journey to understand how food industry leaders leveraged the powers of science marketing and politics to win over a reluctant public even as consumers resisted at every turn.
language: English
title: Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry (Volume 68)
publisher: University of California Press