Have you ever thought about where your beef comes from? Around the early 1900s during the progressive era, the meat industry was a big part of the American economy. During this time period, there were no laws requiring inspection of meat products. An American journalist and novelist named Upton Sinclair went to a meat - packing factory and wrote a novel called “The Jungle” exposing the horrible conditions of the meat industry. He witnessed meat that was to be used canned and in sausages was piled on the floor before workers carried it off in carts which contained sawdust, human spit and urine, rat feces, rat poison, and even dead rats. This made the public shocked and appalled of the conditions of meat and this lead to federal food safety laws. Some of …show more content…
The Pure Food and Drug Act is the law that makes it illegal to sell products that are contaminated and/or poisonous to the public. Since then companies have “better conditions” in the meat factory.
Later on, in the 1960s and 1970s, the fast food industry grew so the demand for beef rose. The number of beef Americans ate grew more and more throughout the years. Which lead to factory farming beef. Factory farming beef is when cows are raised in large amounts on feedlots and are given many chemicals, antibiotics, hormones, etc in order to produce beef in a large amount. Two chemicals found in beef is Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). HCAs and PAHs are formed when beef is cooked in high temperatures in over high flame. (Such as grilling and pan frying). HCAs are when amino acids, sugars, creatine, and creatinine react to high temperatures which are how they are formed. HCA is found beef is cooked at high temperature. PAHs are when beef is being grilled