Meats With Approval (1946)

[Music] oh doctor I'm so glad you've gotten here Jimmy's terribly sick no no don't you worry let's have a look at him he's in the front bedroom upstairs it started tonight right after dinner this is the third case of this kind I have had this week is it serious doctor no but it could have been he'll be all right in a few days if you give him his medicine regularly but there should be some kind of law that would keep people from selling bad food especially meat yes near the turn of the century episodes like this were common frequent illness sometimes even death followed the eating of food which was tainted unfit for human consumption there were of course many who realized the need for some kind of adequate control over the preparation and marketing of food that would protect the average family from the dangers of Contracting disease and yet most of them were powerless to to do anything about it but one of those who felt he could do something about it was an author he wrote a novel it was not a pleasant novel it was a bitter overdrawn indictment of conditions which the writer Upton Sinclair existed in most of the packing houses of the nation it told of conditions of Filth and carelessness in the handling of meat which were exposing the people of the United States to all manner of deadly disease it was widely read that novel and those who read became concerned and aroused it's an outrage a man isn't safe even at his own dinner table something ought to be done about it why doesn't the government step in yes the people of the United States violently exercise their constitutional right to demand that the government do something about the proper handling of meat for their tables as a result the president himself Theodore Roosevelt gave his personal endorsement to legislation that would create Federal supervision of meat handling in the major packing plants of the nation and so it was that in July 196 a law requiring government control of Meat Inspection reinspection and supervision of processing and labeling was passed from that time right up to the present that law has had a profound effect upon the health and well-being of every American citizen to enforce the law to make sure that meat of all kinds was properly inspected for wholesomeness and Purity a federal Meat Inspection Service was set up and charged with the responsibility of seeing that all meat handled in interstate commerce or for export was carefully examined from the live animal to its final form that is why today more than 2third of all meat sold Bears this small purple stamp the stamp of wholesomeness backed by the Assurance of Uncle Sam himself on which it is imprinted is free from disease and can be eaten without fear of contamination probably all of us at one time or another have seen the little purple stamp on meat that we bought at our local butcher shop but not many of us have been aware of what is behind that stamp the complex organization and devoted attention to detail that is part and parcel of federal Meat Inspection Service as a matter of fact the placing of the purple circle of wholesomeness upon a piece of meat is the very last and least important of the many many acts which preceded the story of Meat Inspection begins in the Department of Agriculture building in Washington where the Meat Inspection Division coordinates the activities of inspectors all over the country engaged in this and many other kinds of inspection work these inspectors are highly trained men many of them are graduate doctors of veterinary medicine and all have had to pass rig tests as to ability and character because in their hands lies the responsibility for maintaining the wholesomeness of the meat we eat their activities are wide and varied but their word is law around every major packing plant and they are generally looked upon as wise counselors in all matters pertaining to the handling of meat actually the inspection service starts with the very structure of a packing house itself because the physical attributes of places where meat is handled are of direct interest to the Meat Inspection Service they must conform to very high standards and thousands of details even such things as handwashing facilities and the screens on the Windows come under the careful scrutiny of the inspectors before a packing plant becomes entitled to government inspection service the result is that the places where the meat we eat is processed are models of cleanliness but now let's see some of the many many ways that our government's inspection of meat protects our health and guards the wholesomeness of the beef ve pork and lamb that we buy at the butcher shop Take These Fine fat Steers for example brought from a western state to a Mid-Continent packing plant they with many others are first confined in a holding pen so they can be closely examined by Meat inspectors before Slaughter the holding pens are so arranged and so lighted that the inspectors assisted by employees of the packing company can study the animals when they are at rest and when they are moving this makes it possible for the trained eye of the inspector to pick out any which show evidences of unhealthiness when such an animal is found it is segregated from the rest in a separate pen while the healthy ones are passed on into the packing house for Slaughter in its segregation pen the animal whose health is in doubt is given a very thorough examination by an inspector and on his findings is either approved for Slaughter or is put in one of two other categories these are known as us condemned in which case the animal is not permitted to be slaughtered for food or us suspect which means that the animal must be slaughtered separately from the normal ones and be given a special postmortem examination to make certain it is not diseased inside the packing house every step connected with the handling of the animals beginning with the slaughtering operation is closely scrutinized by the inspector ctors and even the outer clothing of the workers has to meet his approval before the day's work begins now comes close supervision by the inspectors of each operation in connection with the handling of the carcass packing plant employees are required to tag the head with a serial number that corresponds to one put on the body of the animal this makes it possible for the two to be identified together if any disease condition is found in either one an important part of the head inspection is to cut open certain glands and also examine for cysts which would indicate the presence of a parasite that causes tapeworm in those who eat the meat even the tongue is given a close inspection because an abnormality there might be a clue to disease and while the head is being inspected the carcass has been taken to a dressing bed where it is skinned and hung up for evisceration all the viscera are closely examined by the inspector cases by merely feeling the part whether it is diseased however certain of the animals viscera are cut open by the inspector to make doubly certain that they are in healthy condition the next precaution Uncle Sam takes with meat animals is called the rail inspection here the highly skilled hands and eyes quickly examine each half of the split carcass and inspect the lymph glands the inspectors have been trained to detect abnormalities through the sense of touch if anywhere in the carcass the slightest abnormality is detected all all parts of the animal are marked with sections of a tag each bearing the same serial number and USU retained in large letters these tags make it possible to assemble the various parts for what is called a final inspection which is more detailed than the first inspection and guarantees that if there is any disease present in the carcass it can be accurately located and classified in some cases only one or two organs may have been affected by abnormality and these alone are condemned while the rest of the carcass is passed on for food however it may be necessary to condemn the whole carcass in such cases it is marked us inspected and condemned all condemned products are held under the supervision of the inspectors until they are converted into fertilizer or other inedible material meanwhile another detailed inspection is being given the viscera as they are separated and the inedible portions removed from those which are fit for food special training is necessary for the inspectors who do this work since it is highly important that extraordinary sanitary precautions be taken with every step this careful attention to the way in which livers Hearts Head meat tongues and tripe are handled continues after the visera have left the slaughtering departments specially devised equipment is used to transport the meat to the refrigerators and constant inspection of the cleanliness of the equipment there is part of the job of protecting consumers now let us see what is happening to the beef carcass which was so carefully inspected before it was sent to the cooling room here the meat again comes under close supervision by the government inspector the man in the center as it is divided into the commercial beef cuts with which we're all familiar but the products which come from this carcass cutting Department that are to be used in cured smoked sausage and canned Meats get an extra amount of inspection attention for instance let's see how carefully an ordinary h is watched by the United States meat inspectors as it goes through the various curing and smoking processes to begin with the products used to cure the ham that is the nitrates salt spices and other condiments must meet the Purity specifications of the Meat Inspection Division the Vats in which the meat is cured must be scrupulously clean and of special construction that permits frequent scrubbing after the curing period the ham is removed from the vat and an inspector is right on the job to examine it for soundness and cleanliness and to see that it is individually washed in Clear Water before being taken to the smok house here too no detail is too small to be carefully scrutinized by the government inspectors they even pass on the kind of cord that is used to hold the ham to the Smoke Tree suspended from an overhead rail finally when the ham has been smoked inspectors take temperatures of the ready to eat product products containing pork to make certain that they have been heated sufficiently to kill any Trina which may be present in the pork and at this point employees under the inspector supervision probe deep into the meat to make sure that it has been properly cured all the way through so that no sour spots will develop this same careful supervision by the inspectors of Smoked Meats extends to all kinds of processed Meats sausage for example gets a lot of attention from the government men beginning with the ingredients the pork or beef and the spices used in it and continuing right down to the moment the sausage is packed for marketing but the work of the inspectors is not limited to guarding the wholesomeness of fresh meats ham sausage and the like it extends also into the canning department where every step in the process of preparing a canned meat product for Market is constantly under watchful eyes the cleanliness of the cans the methods used for filling them Sealing them and heat processing or cooking here especially Extra Care is taken by the inspectors to make certain that every batch of cans does get the proper amount of heat processing and this is done in an ingenious Way by fastening to every basket of cans a colored tag which changes color after the basket has gone through the heat processing thus at a glance an inspector can tell whether a batch has been cooked or not then as a final check on the wholesomeness and goodness of canned Meats frequent samples are picked at random from everyday's production and placed in a high temperature incubation room where they remain until the inspector is satisfied that the content does not spoil under heat and that the cans are whole and sound so you see when you buy a meat product in a can bearing this stamp of approval by your government you can rest assured that its Purity has been guarded from beginning to end yes there are many many ways in which the Meat Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture protects our health the multitudinous function of inspectors of every type of meat animal in packing plants is only part of the story for example seven Laboratories are maintained Across the Nation in which samples of meat food products of the ingredients used ination can be regularly analyzed even such things as the kind of paint used in packing houses is tested in these scientific centers furthermore the federal inspection service exercises close control over the labeling of all meat products to see that no misleading information is allowed on a label and that an exact description of the product tells the housewife what she is getting true your government goes to Great Lengths to see that the meat we eat is good and pure but bear in mind that not all meat is government inspected however more than 2third of all meat sold in this country is inspected by Uncle Sam's men and at a cost of a tiny fraction of a cent a pound the health of every citizen is important to the continued greatness of America that is why today the vast resources of a great government agency and the skill and intelligence of highly trained experts is constantly devoted to the task of seeing that Americans have meat that is disease free and wholesome that is why today we can be certain of complete protection by the little purple circle of Purity that we find on the meat we eat