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The Jungle: The Pure Food And Drug Act

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The Jungle: The Pure Food And Drug Act
The Pure Food and Drug Act was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906, the same day as the Meat Inspection Act. The act was designed to prevent the adulteration and mislabeling of foods and pharmaceuticals. This was a direct result of the scandals of the unsanitary methods used by the food industry that was revealed in ‘The Jungle’ written by Upton Sinclair. The act hoped to protect the public from unsafe food, deceptive claims of of a drug/medicine made, and to respond to the public outcry against the unhygienic and unsanitary processing methods. As a result, the act prevented the misrepresentation of medicine and drugs, it gave credibility to the Square Deal domestic policy of President Roosevelt, it gave credence to the

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