Person holding cranberries
Philip Cardamone / Getty Images/EyeEm
The great cranberry scare of 1959
By Adrian Ma and Stacey Vanek Smith/NPR
Philip Cardamone / Getty Images/EyeEm
Person holding cranberries
When scientists found traces of a carcinogen in a batch of cranberries just ahead of Thanksgiving in 1959, the government issued a food warning. Across the nation, people panicked, and even though the contamination was limited, the cranberry industry ground to a halt. It didn’t help that the White House, for its Thanksgiving dinner that year, replaced cranberry sauce with applesauce.
But the cranberry business survived. In fact, it went on to thrive. Today on The Indicator, how a disaster transformed the humble cranberry and turned it into a global food. And why its commercial success is once again being threatened.
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