2883: Clean Eating: Old Food Safety Marketing Nov 12, 2024
Lots of Victorian and Edwardian era foods were either actually poisonous or were so contaminated after heavy industrialization and few regulations as to make them very dangerous. This led to branding around food designed to sound very pure and clean. Hydrox for example was named for “hydrogen and oxygen”, and though to modern ears it might sound like a house cleaning product, it was designed to evoke a sense of high standards in the food. Likewise, this is understood to be the source of the names “Dr. Pepper” and “Pepsi”.
In the latter case, this was from a benefit of unregulated marketing, where it was sold as a cure for dyspepsia otherwise known as indigestion, despite the sugar, caffeine and carbonation doing the opposite. That sort of marketing is now illegal, though the name stuck around, as did the term “digestive biscuit” or “digestives” which is still popular in the UK, but illegal as false advertising in some countries.