State Cracks Down on Butchers Doctoring Hamburger
Washington's Pure Food Commission has won convictions and fines against Seattle butchers who treated putrid meat scraps with chemicals, and more prosecutions are coming.
The Washington Pure Food Commission has started a statewide campaign against butchers who use preservatives. This movement has received a large impetus through the conviction of seventeen offenders in Seattle for doctoring of hamburger steak with 'freezum.' The aggregate fines assessed against them was $10,100. The evidence was obtained by Deputy Commissioner Will H. Adams. He says he has already collected samples from butchers in Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Centralia, Chehalis, Olympia and Tacoma, on which at least 60 can be convicted. The meat men have been treating putrid scraps with chemicals and selling it to the public.
“The meat men have been treating putrid scraps with chemicals and selling it to the public.”
Long before the FDA, Washington's Pure Food Commission was testing hamburger for chemical preservatives and hauling butchers into court. The 1909 crackdown on 'freezum'—a formaldehyde-like preservative—foreshadowed today's fights over food additives, labeling, and the trust we place in what we eat.
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