Meat-packing was also a very
deceptive industry. The consumer thought they were buying clean meat, while
they were in fact buying purposely mislabeled products. Because of the filthy
working conditions, chemicals, rat droppings, and other fillers detrimental to
one’s health ended up in the meats.
In the report President Roosevelt delivered to Congress on June 4, 1906, he said “The phraseology of these labels is wholly unwarranted. The government inspectors pass only upon the healthfulness of the animal at the time of killing. They know nothing of the processes through which the meat has passed since the inspection. They do not know what else may have been placed in the cans in addition to ‘inspected meat.’ As a matter of fact, they know nothing about the ‘contents’ of the can upon which the packers place these labels-do not even know that it contains what it purports to contain. The legend ‘quality guaranteed’ immediately following the statement as to government inspection is wholly unjustifiable. It deceives and is plainly designed to deceive the average purchaser, who naturally infers from the label that the government guarantees the contents of the can to be what it purports to be.” During the Spanish-American War in 1898, Armour meat-packing sold over 500,000 pounds of meat to the U.S. Military. The meat turned out to be infected, and thousands of soldiers got food poisoning, and some died. |
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