Safe to Eat? American Food Safety · Episode 2 of 8 · 12 min
A Nation of Cheats
Before 1906, American food was local and often a lie. Milk was watered, whitened with plaster or dosed with formaldehyde, canned beef fed to soldiers was called embalmed, and patent medicines were laced with morphine and cocaine. Danger could poison a town but not a continent, and Washington treated it as someone else's problem.
Who's who
- Nelson A. Miles+1 more episodeArmy commanding general who charged in 1898-99 that troops ate embalmed beef
- Russell A. AlgerSecretary of War who resigned in 1899 after the beef scandal
- Samuel Hopkins AdamsMuckraking journalist behind Collier's series The Great American Fraud
Where it happens
- New York City+13 more episodesSetting of the 1858 swill-milk scandal
Timeline
- 1858A swill-milk exposé in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper sparks outrage in New York
- 1898Spanish-American War troops are fed beef later denounced as embalmed
- August 1, 1899Secretary of War Alger resigns after a court of inquiry hears the beef charges
- 1905-1906Adams's The Great American Fraud runs in Collier's, building pressure for federal action
Still debated
The figure of 8,000 infant deaths was a newspaper estimate, not an audited statistic. The embalmed-beef charges were politically charged and disputed at the time, though the public alarm and reform momentum are not.
