It actually happened in the 19th century when cotton seed oil, a waste product that was burnt in lamps and used to make soap, was transformed into palatable food. (see Mercola, “Fat for Fuel”, p 10). He writes that an article in Popular Science Monthly of May 1984 summed it up as follows:
“What was garbage in 1860 was fertilizer in 1870, cattle feed in 1880, and table food and many things else in 1890”
The other lesson to be learned from this is that in those days the press was honest. If you ever should study the history of the press in the USA, you’ll find that there were more than 20 000 papers published by independent editors.