Pure Food and Drug Act and Federal Meat Inspection Act (1906)
Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle exposed unsanitary conditions in Chicago meatpacking plants. Congress responded that year with two laws creating the first modern U.S. food safety inspection systems.
The laws created a federal food and drug watchdog (later the FDA) and required federal inspection of meat plants.
They made government inspection a routine condition for selling food to the public, the baseline for today's health department permitting.
Tacos Heaven's pre-permit inspection descends from that same principle: a government check before food reaches customers. The 1906 laws established why such inspections exist.
