Essay on The Meat Inspection Act of 1906

House of Representatives.” (History, Art and Archives) This federal law provided federal inspection of meat products and stopped the manufacture, sale, or transportation poisonous patent medicines. “Muckraking journalists had long reported on the appallingly unsanitary conditions of the country’s manufacturing plants, especially those in Chicago’s meat-packing industry.”( History, Art and Archives).

The first Pure Food and Drug Act was put into action by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. The act was passed to prevent the manufacture, sale, or transportation of misbranded or harmful food, drugs, medicines, and liquors. Due to this act the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came to be. The FDA is now responsible for the testing of all foods and drugs for human consumption and the label warnings on them as well.

As one of the primary federal consumer-protection laws in existence today, The Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906 was a law that had two primary goals for food and drugs: (a) forbid harmful ingredients and additions and (b) demand labeling of ingredients to inform consumers. According to Janssen (1981), it was hoped that the enactment of this law would eliminate adulterations and poisons sometimes found in foods, sometimes in drugs and often in both. The foundation of food and drug protection came from the development of scientific methods of analysis by the Federal Bureau of Chemistry,

In the U.S the food is regulated at the federal and state levels. All three branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial) are involved in controlling the food industry. Each branch have their own laws.

2. Progressives believed that government should protect the people and promote the social welfare of people through which means?

Dead rats, infection diseases, and poison. These are only a few of the absolutely horrid things that would carelessly be thrown in by factory workers during the making and packaging process in the 1900s. People of that time period were completely unaware of how uncared for the meat that they were eating every day really was. Their food wasn’t cared for the way ours is today and it definitely wasn't inspected, therefore ending up with that unwanted rat chunk in your meat. The Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 really shaped the cycle our food before it hits stores today compared to the 1900s, by making it a law to have all equipment cleaned correctly, including the food, and making sure all food gets inspected before it goes to the mouths of buyers like you and me.

Butcher and handling offices are reviewed to confirm that industry is taking after procedures and practices that outcome in meat that is protected to eat. Controllers check for the nearness of pesticides, medication buildups, and infection in creatures. Creatures must be butchered in governmentally enlisted and investigated foundations and meat should likewise be handled in these sorts of foundations. Assessors isolate their time between surveying every foundation's security confirmation programs (counting HACCP) and conduction on location

People today believe that the government is supposed to eliminate any possible danger from the food they consume, but that is not the case. In the book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of The All-American Meal written by Eric Schlosser, he discusses numerous problems with food production. Some of these issues are discussed in the “Epilogue”, “What’s In Meat”, and “Most Dangerous Job” chapters where Schlosser elaborates on the government’s role and how workers are mistreated. In the article, “U.S. Meatpacking Under Fire: Human Rights Group Calls for Line Speed Reduction, ERGO Standards,” it explains how the working conditions in the meat packaging industry are hazardous and are violations of basic human rights. Although workers are affected by the government’s role in the food industry, consumers are affected as well. The consequences of the lack of governmental oversight, like food contamination and others, are discussed in the film Food Inc. “Escaping the Regulatory Net: Why Regulatory Reform Can Fail Consumers”, an academic journal written by Henry Rothstein, explains how “putting consumers first” is difficult for the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to accomplish because with consumer’s interests that means regulatory reforms are most likely going to fail.

Food and Drug laws were put in place to protect the public from dangerous chemicals and other sorts of health hazards such as fermentation of canned foods, that would make people sick and cause food poisoning which in serious conditions wold cause death.

Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 focused on product labeling in order to control the quality of imported drugs. This era of chemistry from 1906-1938 was followed by toxicology after several incidences prompted the congress to pass Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDC) in 1938. One of the major incidences was the death of more than 100 people (mostly children) who took elixir of sulfanilamide adulterated with the toxin diethylene glycol. FDC act mandated the manufacturers to submit safety proofs to the FDA before marketing. It also extended FDA's control over cosmetics and other therapeutics devices, further authorizing factory inspections to ensure compliance.

Contaminated beef, originating in Britain and exported to other EU countries, resulted in human fatalities. Blame was placed squarely on the shoulders of government scientists and food safety experts. (Lack of trust continues today.)

The United States Congress Act passed the Federal Inspection Meat Act of 1906 (FIMA), prevents from misbranding and altering of meat as well as keeping the processing and slaughtering of animals sanitary (7). The FIMA Act had four primary requirements, first required mandatory inspection of livestock before slaughtering, second required mandatory postmortem inspection of carcasses, third established sanitary standards for slaughter houses and meat processing plants, and fourth permitted U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to monitor and inspect processing plants (7). This also applies to imported and foreign meats and they hold them to the same regulations and standards

Australia food history is dynamic, urban, industrial, science-based and capitalist-driven. The food produced is of high quality. One of the reasons behind this is that all livestock are free of all major livestock diseases. The Australian meat and livestock industry has had a long term commitment to food safety, product integrity and traceability, and its product quality complements Australia’s focus on responsibility in meeting the demands of its international customers.

To avoid widespread food contaminations to the general public, the USDA has rules and regulations in place and theses include and state that “all meat transported and sold in interstate commerce must be federally inspected”. Furthermore, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) “carries out USDA's responsibilities under the Federal Meat Inspection Act”. Hence these laws protect the general public (consumers) by ensuring that meat products are “wholesome, unadulterated, and correctly labeled and packaged”. On the local levels, many states have their own inspection programs that are applicable for meats produced and sold within their borders, such State programs and inspection must “enforce requirements at least equal to those of Federal

The problems present in the meatpacking industry were the filthy conditions, and their quality control, as well as their health and safety regulations. The Meat Inspection Act corrects some of these issues by very thoroughly addressing the problem, and stating ways they -must- be fixed. For example: