The Formaldehyde Oysters That Sickened a Pullman Meat Market's Customers
A shipment of 'fresh' oysters left a trail of upset stomachs—and a state chemist found the preservative that did it.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
PULLMAN, Wash. — The proprietor of one of the local meat markets recently received a shipment of fresh oysters, which he sold out rapidly to his customers. He took some home and ate heartily of them, but before he finished the meal he experienced great distress. The following day all of the oyster customers of the day before made complaint, they all having been sick after eating the oysters. A quantity of the oysters was sent to Prof. Fuller, state chemist, at the agricultural college, for analysis. He found them full of formaldehyde and now the butcher is handling another brand of oysters.
“He found them full of formaldehyde and now the butcher is handling another brand of oysters.”
In 1903, formaldehyde was a common preservative—and a common poison. The Pullman oyster scare is an early example of the kind of food-safety investigation that now falls to the FDA and state labs. It also reminds us that 'fresh' has always been a claim worth verifying.
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