A new edition of Poisoned, a novel by Jeff Benedict that stories the events of the 1993 foodborne illness outbreak caused by contaminated hamburger meat from Jack in the Box restaurants, will be published alongside an August 2023 Netflix documentary based on the book. The new edition is currently available for pre-order.
Attorney Bill Marler, who represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the historic Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak, is one of the central figures of Poisoned. Marler is now a prominent food safety attorney, having represented victims of nearly every large foodborne illness outbreak in the U.S. for the past 26 years. He was also a recent guest on the Food Safety Matters podcast, where he tells his story of the 1993 outbreak, as well as his outlook on the future of food safety legislation in the U.S.
The Netflix documentary based on Poisoned will explore untold stories from the victims of foodborne illness outbreaks and detail subsequent criminal prosecutions. The documentary will also look at the history of food safety in the U.S., the evolution of which was spurred by the 1993 outbreak. The Jack in the Box outbreak specifically prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to declare E. coli an illegal adulterant in ground beef.
Update July 2023: The documentary debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 9, 2023 and will premiere on Netflix on August 2, 2023.