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Meat Inspection Act Of 1906: The United States Army Beef Scandal

504 Words3 Pages

Meat Inspection Act of 1906
The United States Army Beef Scandal, happened during the Spanish American war in 1886. Soldiers were supplied with toxic, rotten meats that they claimed smelled like an “embalmed dead body.” Nelson Miles, the commanding general of the U.S. army, spread word of the soldiers who died from food poisoning and the newspapers spread the term “embalmed beef.” Soldiers of the United States army usually would prepare their own food and supplies, but due to fighting in the Phillipines and Cuba they had to rely on food provided by the government. Cold, canned beef was all the soldiers were provided to eat and of course they complained over the quality of it. President Roosevelt called his troops babies for complaining about the meat, but after trying it himself he was repulsed. Some cans had been reported to contain maggots, pieces of rope, and toxic preservatives. …show more content…

According to Upton Sinclair’s, “The Jungle,”numerous types of meats were mixed together with no discretion. There were meats that were sold even after rotting, the meat covered in white mold. Meats were injected with toxic preservatives and chemicals. Meat was left on the ground, trampled and spit on and still sold. Rats, poop, dust, leaky roof water were all things that came into contact with the produced meat. And workers were dying from diseases spread from the rotting meats and rat refuse. After Upton Sinclair published “The Jungle,” many American citizens were disgusted and angered by the quality of the meat they were consuming. This led citizens to demand congress to consider a “Pure food and drug bill.” This bill however, did not contain rules for keeping the meat packing history clean and free of disease. So Roosevelt, disgusted by the factory conditions eventually passed the “Meat Inspection Act of 1906,” which forced meat packing factories to have higher standards of meat that are not spoiled and/or diseased by rats and

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