Lard sandwich anyone?
The particulars of this story were originaly told by upton sinclair in his 1906 book "The Jungle" wich told of the perils of working in the meat packing industry in turn-of-the-century America. "The Jungle" is still considered by some to be the the greatest example of muckraking journalism in history.
President Theodore Roosevelt was so appalled after reading the book he reportedly threw his breakfast sausage out the window and had the government investigate Sinclair's claims. After congress finished their hearings and all investigations were complete it was concluded that the following incident and other horrors of the meat packing industry were true. These discoveries lead to the passage of several laws inculing the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
During the rendering proccess at a meat rendering plant animal material not used for other things is places in a huge vat and boiled for about an hour at about 220 - 270 degrees to seperate fatty material wich is then used for lard and other fat based products. This particular case happened during the rendering proccess for lard being sold by Durhams pure leaf lard to be sold to the consumer as an edible product fit for human consumption. What they didnt tell you is that the vat used for rendering this product was also into human consumption, if you get my drift.
One day poor Joe Blo is working on rendering an enormous vat of meat by product when he accidentally takes takes a belly flop into the disgusting,smelly hot brine of death. I can only assume that it was a fear induced heart attack ,the boiling animal product or the simple act of drowning that killed this poor soul. Needless to say he never made it out, well part of him did. After the batch was done all that was mortal of Joe Blo and still left to salvage was removed, and consisted of a sparkly clean skeleton and thats all. Im guessing the funeral was not an open casket affair. I wonder if they dressed him. No word on wether or not they found his soiled jocky shorts.
Joe Blo was packaged along with the rest of the lard and eaten by the unsuspecting artery clogged american public. In a marketing move that would make P.T. Barnum blush it was sold in a limited edition run with special packaging that boasted the phrase "Now with 2% real human". Ok that last sentence wasa joke.
Though this story is an old one it certainly meets the criteria for "people in food" and if nothing else will let us see how far we have come, from losing an entire human being who was passed of as a food product to the days of being able to find out that someone DID NOT lose a finger tip in the long journey from cow, to consumer.
President Theodore Roosevelt was so appalled after reading the book he reportedly threw his breakfast sausage out the window and had the government investigate Sinclair's claims. After congress finished their hearings and all investigations were complete it was concluded that the following incident and other horrors of the meat packing industry were true. These discoveries lead to the passage of several laws inculing the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
During the rendering proccess at a meat rendering plant animal material not used for other things is places in a huge vat and boiled for about an hour at about 220 - 270 degrees to seperate fatty material wich is then used for lard and other fat based products. This particular case happened during the rendering proccess for lard being sold by Durhams pure leaf lard to be sold to the consumer as an edible product fit for human consumption. What they didnt tell you is that the vat used for rendering this product was also into human consumption, if you get my drift.
One day poor Joe Blo is working on rendering an enormous vat of meat by product when he accidentally takes takes a belly flop into the disgusting,smelly hot brine of death. I can only assume that it was a fear induced heart attack ,the boiling animal product or the simple act of drowning that killed this poor soul. Needless to say he never made it out, well part of him did. After the batch was done all that was mortal of Joe Blo and still left to salvage was removed, and consisted of a sparkly clean skeleton and thats all. Im guessing the funeral was not an open casket affair. I wonder if they dressed him. No word on wether or not they found his soiled jocky shorts.
Joe Blo was packaged along with the rest of the lard and eaten by the unsuspecting artery clogged american public. In a marketing move that would make P.T. Barnum blush it was sold in a limited edition run with special packaging that boasted the phrase "Now with 2% real human". Ok that last sentence wasa joke.
Though this story is an old one it certainly meets the criteria for "people in food" and if nothing else will let us see how far we have come, from losing an entire human being who was passed of as a food product to the days of being able to find out that someone DID NOT lose a finger tip in the long journey from cow, to consumer.
posted at 9:16 PM
