FOOD TASTERS

When you hear the phrase ‘food taster’, you may think of a person who tastes food to make sure that it tastes good. However, a food taster is a person who eats the food that is prepared for someone else to make sure that it is safe to eat.

Food tasters were employed by kings, queens or other important people to make sure that their food was not poisoned. If the food taster fell ill or died, the authorities knew that someone had made an attempt to kill the king, queen or the important person in question, so that food wasn’t served.

Today food tasters also work for food companies. They are also sometimes called ‘food testers’. If a food company wants to know whether or not their product is safe for humans, the food is given to human tasters and their health is checked a few hours or days after the food is eaten.

Food tasting used to be a dangerous job in the past. Food tasters were often killed by the poison in the food. The poison was usually put in the food by someone who despised or was the rival of the king or queen. However, today food tasting is a relatively safe job. The doctors at the scene watch your health conditions all the time to make sure there is no serious danger. However, it could be a boring job, as often times food tasters aren’t allowed to eat whatever they like. They may also be asked not to eat anything 12 hours before tasting the food.