An Introduction to "Food Crimes"

This chapter introduces the concept of food crime, gives examples of food crime, and places food crime in the context of cheap capitalism. The chapter also touches upon the issue of harms caused by food crime, focusing on deaths caused by food. Then, the chapter compares crime and deviance, since most food crime is not actually illegal but is instead deviant. I argue that food crime should be considered a form of state-corporate criminality, where corporate actors, enabled and encouraged by the state, engage in culpable behaviors that lead to financial and physical harm to consumers.