The Meat Inspection Act Of 1906

During the IR, the way food is preserved changed a lot. Beforehand, food preservation was hardly even a thing. Food was sometimes preserved in glass jars. Animals were brought into cities alive and slaughtered there, so the meat was eaten fresh. It could be stored during the winter but would go bad quickly in the summer. Ice was sometimes harvested and used to preserve stuff, but it was very expensive and the ice was often impure. Later, people got better at making metal cans so they got popular. In the 1850s the first ice makers were invented and in the mid-late 1800s there were refrigerated cars on trains and freezer cabins on ships. Refrigerators were probably good also, whenever that happened. This all made things better because food could …show more content…
Overall, it got more mass-produced. Factories arose for food production and processing, I need more information on this. However, with the factories came more ways stuff could be unsafe, especially in the meatpacking industry. Some reference to The Jungle here. As a result, The meat Inspection Act of 1906 was passed, requiring that meat/animals be inspected before and after slaughter and processing. Also, farms have been mechanized as new technologies are developed. This made agriculture cheaper than ever before, and requiring less labor. Individual farm size grew while the number of farmer fell (Where did I read this?). Food became the largest manufacturing industry in the 1920s. While all these developments increased the quantity of food, often the quality went down when it was mass-produced. Passing laws about food safety helped, so this all wasn’t totally bad. Most people benefited equally, although rich people could afford better quality, non-mass produced foods and avoid some of the quality …show more content…
The advances in food preservation increased the shelf-life of many foods, allowing for stores devoted entirely to selling food (grocery stores). These came about around the 1860s. They are very prevalent today, but before the IR people got food mostly from a variety of locations, such as markets and butcher shops. Also during this time, brands of food began to appear and market themselves. Brands like formed and tried to convince people why they were the best. In the early 1900s the health food movement began, which continues to this day. Research was done on nutrition and vitamins, causing companies to market themselves as healthy or containing lots of vitamins. There was a vitamin craze during which people thought that vitamins could cure or improve pretty much anything. Despite the public’s desire for healthy foods, sweets continued to sell well. Another important development of the IR was the modern restaurant. They first emerged in Paris in the early 1800s, but had become normal in America by the mid 1800s. Restaurants transformed the idea that one could only eat well in one’s home. The food was good, and the business got very competitive. Overall food distribution changes dramatically during the IR. Most people benefited from being able to get food more easily and more