1906 Upton Sinclair's The Jungle: Keeping Food Safe Since 1906

In 1906 Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle, a book that exposed the meatpacking industry for their poor treatment of workers and for their disgusting practices and conditions. This started an uproar of people concerned about what they were eating and if it was even safe. But is food safe more now? Since 1906 there has been many improvements to keeping food safe from farm to table, i would say yes food is definitely more safe since 1906. With the advances in keeping food safe both technology and federal control, food is now more safe than it was in the past. After Upton Sinclair, a muckraker journalist, released The Jungle he met with the president of the united states and he passed two acts to protect the public from food that wasn’t proven safe. The acts were called The Pure Food and Drug act and The Meat Inspection act, These acts protected the people from food that was packaged in gross and dirty conditions. These helps reduce foodborne diseases like Salmonella. These acts improved food safety directly and were passed in 1906 but came into effect in 1907. In 1912

Before the 1920s food was kept cold by being put on since, outside in cold weather, and even buried. But in the 1920s the fridge and freezer were invented, keeping food in temperatures where where bacteria couldn’t multiply. With the invention of the refrigerator foodborne illnesses were, again, decreased. Then in the 1950s people began to worry about pesticides and those were restricted in farms to keep things more safe from the source. Things only got more strict for farms and food industries making so they can’t release unsafe foods unless certain means were met with pesticides and packing/producing practices. There was also higher surveillance for the food industry, with that came more investigations and research for keeping food safe. Sheer technological advancements improved food safety significantly compared to what it was in