The Meat Inspection Act of 1906

     The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 was signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt in response to the many issues in the meatpacking industry brought to light by government investigators and muckrakers alike.  The law required accurate labeling of meat and required that livestock be slaughtered under sanitary conditions.
     The meatpacking industry was first seriously brought under fire with the report that the company Armour & Co. had shipped rotten meat to American soldiers in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.  Though there were earlier scandals, this one drew widespread public attention for the first time, in part because some American soldiers got extremely sick and even died after eating the spoiled meat.  Even future President Theodore Roosevelt, then a colonel in Cuba, stated that he would've sooner eaten his hat than the rotten beef shipped by Armour & Co.
     However, far more widespread disgust at the meat industry was shared with the publishing of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, an exposé written about the Beef Trust, which was made up of the five largest meatpacking companies in Chicago.  The book, which exposed the horrible working conditions and regulation of what was sold as meat, gained instant success as an international bestseller.  Though Sinclair's initial goal was to promote socialism, his work inspired far greater regulation of business and the breaking up of trusts.
     The Meat Inspection Act sought to address many of the problems characterized so vividly by Sinclair.  Though it was introduced before Sinclair's story was confirmed, it stalled in Congress until the Beef Trust was inspected thoroughly by Charles P. Neill and James Bronson Reynolds, who corroborated Sinclair's facts.  After this, however, the bill passed quickly through Congress and was signed into law. 
    Theodore Roosevelt's role in breaking up the Beef Trust contributed, in part, to his image as a Progressive trust-buster.  This characterization was largely due to the very nature of the industry, which was deemed to be unsanitary and disgusting to many.  These people saw Roosevelt as heroic for addressing the meatpacking problems they were unwilling to address themselves.   This perspective was illustrated by the Utica Saturday Globe in the famous political cartoon, titled, "A Nauseating Job, but it Must be Done", which shows Roosevelt's investigation into the scandal. 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Meat-Inspection-Act
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/political-cartoon-from-the-utica-saturday-globe-which-says-news-photo/515356656#/political-cartoon-from-the-utica-saturday-globe-which-says-a-job-but-picture-id515356656
http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-24-1-b-upton-sinclairs-the-jungle-muckraking-the-meat-packing-industry.html