jun 30, 1906 - Meat Inspection Act

Description:

A law requiring livestock to be slaughtered under sanitary conditions, as well as criminalizing the misbranding of meat. The law was passed in part due to Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Though the book was an attempt to demonstrate the maltreatment of the working class, the public was instead horrified at the meat production described. Sinclair was also socialist, so President Roosevelt had misgivings about the accuracy of the tale. He sent labor commissioner Charles Neill and social worker James Bronson Reynolds to conduct surprise inspections of meat facilities. What they found confirmed the unsanitary conditions that meat was being prepared in, leading to the law's passgae.