History Main / CleanFoodPoisonedFork

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': In ''The Malloreon'', [[MasterPoisoner Sadi]] manages to finally get rid of an annoying minor villain by poisoning the spoon he's going to use at a banquet.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': When he was director of Arkham Asylum, Professor Milo served a cup of tea to a disguised Batman. Although Batman did not drink it, it turned out Milo had coated the cup handle with a contact poison.

* ''ComicBook/{{Murena}}'' goes with the theory that the Roman Emperor Claudius was poisoned, not by the mushrooms he'd eaten but by a poisoned feather stuck down his throat [[DeadlyDoctor in order to get him to vomit up the (supposedly venomous) mushrooms]].

* In ''[[VisualNovel/TheRoyalRomance The Royal Heir]]'', Book 1, it is revealed that the poison in the wine that killed Liam's mother actually came from the goblet used to serve it [[note]]It involved a certain chemical reacting with the steel of the goblet, which produces cyanide.[[/note]]

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* ''WebVideo/SevenSecondRiddles'': The solution to one murder puzzle was that the victim's ice-cream spoon was poisoned; it was the only time she was eating food the others with her didn't directly touch, as they each had their own ice-cream.

* In the ''Series/BurnNotice'' episode "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS2E8DoubleBooked Double Booked]]", Larry tried to kill a woman by spraying her fork with atropine. Michael knew him well enough to anticipate that and had it replaced with a regular fork, and then faked an emergency. Larry was sincerely impressed when he realized Michal saved the woman, and since the guy who hired him was dead, didn't bother trying again.

* In ''Series/BurnNotice'', Larry tried to kill a woman by spraying her fork with atropine. Michael knew him well enough to anticipate that and had it replaced with a regular fork, and then faked an emergency. Larry was sincerely impressed when he realized Michal saved the woman, and since the guy who hired him was dead didn't bother trying again.

* In Creator/RobinHobb's ''[[Literature/{{Farseer}} Assassin's Apprentice]]'', one of Fitz-Chivalry's assassination ploys was to poison the cutlery instead of the food.

* ''Literature/TheCobraTrilogy'': An especially indirect method is used by [[spoiler:the Qasamans. After the expedition from the Cobra Worlds has arranged for the release of some of their party taken hostage and safe passage offplanet, the captives are offered food. They decline to eat it for fear of poison, and then see the hand retrieving the tray from their cell was gloved. The food wasn't poisoned, but the tray was. . . and not with a poison, but with a disease meant to infect who the Qasamans believe are hostile invaders.]]

* In the second book of the ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'' series, ''Literature/RedSeasUnderRedSkies'', [[spoiler:Archon Stragos tricks the protagonists into drinking his wine after taking the first drink from the bottle, just to reveal afterwards that he had brushed the poison onto their cups instead.]]
* [[Literature/{{Hitman}} Hitman: Enemy Within]]: 47 rules out poisoning his target's food or utensils/dishware. The target has a severe peanut allergy and has his security control everything involved in his meals, from the ingredients to the cooking/eating utensils and dishware. [[spoiler:His mistress's food, not so much. 47 sprays the mistress's salad with peanut oil and when she kisses the target, he goes into anaphylactic shock and dies.]]
* In ''Literature/TheMalloreon'', [[MasterPoisoner Sadi]] manages to finally get rid of an annoying minor villain by poisoning the spoon he's going to use at a banquet.
* In the Literature/MarcusDidiusFalco tale ''Venus in Copper'', when the landlord Hortensius Novus is murdered with poison it turns out that all the suspects independently tried to murder him--his own family with a poisoned cake, his business rival with poisoned spices to be added to the wine--but the actual murderer was his fiance, who poisoned the plate the cakes were served on, knowing that gluttonous Novus would lick the plate clean once the meal was done.

* In ''Outcast of Literature/{{Redwall}}'', Swartt uses this trope so he can convince Lord Bowfleg that the wine isn't poisoned by drinking some of it straight from the bottle (the poison is smeared on the goblet which they drink from). He tries it on [[RuleOfThree three separate targets]], though the third would-be victim catches on, forcing him to find a different method of disposal.
* In ''[[Literature/TheRomanMysteries The Sirens of Surrentum]]'', Locusta, a master poisoner, tells of a murder she heard about. The victim was given food with mild poison, but when they made themselves throw up using a feather they died from the lethal poison applied to the feather's tip.

* Story #25 of the 40 collected shorts in ''[[Literature/FiveMinuteMysteries Utterly Ingenious Five Minute Mysteries]]'', "The Kid's Idea", asks readers to discern from a short script excerpt how a Contessa in historical Venice manages to poison a Cardinal who is already suspicious of her. She offers him a goblet of wine, but he will only drink from her goblet after she's taken a sip. She offers him fruit, but he will only take an apple from a basket she hasn't touched. She offers to split the apple with him as a show of good faith, and he only allows her to do so after spinning it in place several times (to make sure that if it's been poisoned on one side, she won't know which). After she cuts the apple and bites into her half, he takes a bite of his and promptly succumbs to a fast-acting poison. [[spoiler:The Contessa poisoned the knife she used to cut the apple, but only on one side]].
* ''Literature/TheElderScrollsInUniverseBooks'': In ''[[https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:A_Game_at_Dinner A Game at Dinner]]'', Prince Hlaalu Helseth of Morrowind holds a banquet, and then informs the guests after the meal that he has poisoned the cups and cutlery of those who were spying on him for other nobles. [[PoisonAndCureGambit He offers a glass of antidote to anyone who confesses.]] [[spoiler:The "antidote" is actually the poison; the man who takes it, and admits to spying for Helseth's stepsister the Queen of Wayrest, dies in agony. The anonymous narrator, himself a spy for Helseth's vassal House Dres, remains silent and is horrified enough by the experience to beg his mistress for reassignment.]]
* One character in ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'' takes out an assassin by giving them a poisoned cup of tea. Not "[[ExactWords a cup of poisoned tea]]", which the assassin anticipated, but a cup of tea with contact poison on the handle.
* Inverted in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''. [[spoiler:Kasbal]] tries to assassinate Princess Jasnah with a snack of bread and jam. Since he knew that Jasnah doesn't like jam and her ward Shallan does, he poisoned the bread and put the antidote in the jam, and safely ate both. [[spoiler:Jasnah incorrectly guessed that the jam was poisoned and Soulcast it into a disgusting concoction to get out of eating it. Without the antidote, Kasbal died, Jasnah saved herself and Shallan using Soulcasting on their blood]].
* Creator/LindseyDavis
** ''The Course of Honour'' has Antonia Caenis (Vespasian's longtime lover and confidante) witnessing Nero's assassination of Britannicus; instead of poisoning Britannicus's mulled wine, Nero's assassin poisoned the cold water intended to cool his throat, which was not tasted in advance of Britannicus drinking it (see Real Life, below).
** In the Literature/MarcusDidiusFalco novel ''Venus in Copper'', a BlackWidow poisons her husband by putting a glaze on a poisoned plate when eventually dissolves, exposing the poison.

* In ''Series/The100'', "Remember Me", the Sky People and the Grounders are having a summit to negotiate an alliance against the Mountain Men. The Sky People bring a bottle of liquor as a gift to the Grounders' Commander. The Commander's advisor insists on trying it first; moments later he seizes up and passes out, and the apparent assassination attempt has predictable results. Later it's proven that the drink wasn't poisoned, it was the cup [[spoiler: in a gambit by the [[SelfPoisoningGambit advisor himself]] to disrupt the alliance.]]

* ''Series/{{Defiance}}'', "Everything is Broken": [[spoiler:Stahma]] offers [[spoiler:Kenya]] a drink from her flask when [[spoiler:she is threatening to tell everyone about them sleeping together. Kenya]] is smart enough to realise that it may be poisoned and doesn't take a drink. Unfortunately, the outside of the flask was coated in poison.

* The reason tomatoes were considered poisonous in the 1800's was because royalty would eat them on pewter plates, made out of lead. The tomato's acidity would cause the lead to leak out and contaminate the food. Without knowing of lead's toxicity, [[EntertaininglyWrong the reasoning behind this prior conclusion did seem fairly sound from a botanical standpoint]]; the royalty blamed the tomatoes instead of the plate, because they belong to the same family as deadly nightshade, another famously toxic plant, and the stems and leaves of the tomato plant actually ''are'' toxic.

* A common lateral-thinking puzzle: Two women go to a restaurant and order iced tea. The first woman drinks quickly and has knocked back multiple glasses in the time it took for the second to drink one. The first woman survives while the second dies, and it's later determined that ''all'' beverages sent to their table were poisoned. How did the first woman escape the poison despite drinking more? [[spoiler: The poison was in the ice. The first woma drank too fast for the ice to melt, while the second woman's ice melted and the poisonous water was mixed into her tea.]]

* In ''Film/DeathBecomesHer'', part one of Helen's elaborate plan to eliminate Madeline involves coating one of each type of wine glass in the cabinet with an alcohol-based drug, so they can arrange for her to get it at dinner and Helen and Ernest can drink safely. [[spoiler:None of it goes down as planned, Ernest just pushes Madeline down the stairs]].

* ''Series/FatherBrown'': In "The House of God", part of the mystery is how the VictimOftheWeek was poisoned when everyone at the the dinner, including Mrs [=McCarthy=], had been served wine from the same bottle and no one else suffered any ill effects. Until Mrs [=McCarthy=] remembers that the victim had been the only handed a specific glass when she arrived and was served a drink...

* ''Series/FatherBrown'': In "The House of God", part of the mystery is how the VictimOftheWeek was poisoned when everyone at the the dinner, including Mrs [=McCarthy=], had been served wine from the same bottle and no one else suffered any ill effects. Until Mrs McCarthy remembers that the victim had been the only handed a specific glass when she arrived and was served a drink...

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