Despite best intentions, US still has food scares

Seeing the reaction to his novel The Jungle, the author Upton Sinclair famously lamented: "I aimed for the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

His portrayal of immigrant workers in the US meat-packing industry had failed to stimulate the foundation of a welfare state charged with protecting the weakest members of society, disappointing Sinclair's fondest hopes. But, whatever the author's intentions, the book did have an influence on US history.

Not long after the appearance of the novel in 1906, the public, literally disgusted at Sinclair's descriptions of the filth in which meat was then processed and packaged, protested loudly enough to the cause the authorities to take notice. The results of the agitation were the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, each aimed at setting a high standard for quality of the country's food supply.