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Decades ago I recall reading that the colorful wrapper of Wonder Bread was misprinted inside out and therefore the printed logo rubbed off on the bread itself, bread was used and kids ended up with lead poisoning. I do remember reading this but can find no further information. Is this story plausible? If so, would not some lead exposure have happened even with correctly printed packaging since it would have been touched by those taking the bread from the packaging.

Jeff
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  • It has been suggested that this would be appropriate for [Skeptics.SE]. My understanding of their scope is that it has to be a widely-held claim, and the fact that the OP remembers reading this might not be strong enough for their requirements. I think this is fine here for the time being, but if it doesn't get an answer here after a few days, we can consider migration. – jonsca Dec 27 '17 at 21:19
  • Buy a loaf of bread. Throw the bread away. Turn the bag inside out. Now look at it. Now, don't you think someone would notice if the bag was inside out? However there was a problem with bread bag reuse. – MaxW Dec 28 '17 at 05:33
  • @MaxW: The kids actually liked that the bread was colored this way and no doubt their mom was unconcerned. If bag reuse is an issue, then simply touching the outside of a normal bag and then touching bread was also dangerous. – Jeff Dec 28 '17 at 06:21
  • @jonsca: i would point out that books printed before 1970 or so were pulled from some children's libraries because of the lead content of the printing in them, old-fashioned printing with lead typeface. This is not that outlandish. – Jeff Dec 28 '17 at 06:23
  • @Jeff I have no reason to doubt you. It's a question of whether it's a widely enough held claim to pass muster at Skeptics. They have a very fixed scope and are fairly unwavering about it. – jonsca Dec 28 '17 at 07:40
  • @jonsca: What I would really like to find is the original article, from maybe 1970. I have of course googled it but I the search is hard since "lead" is a common verb which has nothing to do with the heavy metal. I am both convinced it really happened and that it is not even surprising given that lead was put into gasoline until the 1990s and beyond in some places and into house paint probably until around that same time. I have read that colored ink in the "funny pages" also used to have high lead content which makes the wonder bread story even more likely. – Jeff Dec 28 '17 at 08:18

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