Meat
During the 19th century and throughout the Victorian era meat, in all of its forms, underwent no inspections, either before or after butchering. Meatpackers, always with an eye on the public welfare, were not above taking meat already known to be bad for whatever reason, and mask the rot by either pickling or smoking it. In 1862 the Privy Council in England, formal advisors to Her Majesty, informed their sovereign and the populace that more than one fifth of the meat sold in England came from animals which had been diseased in life. Often veal was veal because it had been too sick to have become a cow.
It was not only the quality of the meat consumed, the quantity was injurious to the health too, whether too much or too little. When New York’s famed Delmonico’s feted Charles Dickens with a dinner in 1870, at a cost of $15 a seating, it offered a menu which began with a light soup, followed by an hors d’oeuvres, then a fish course, then a light dish to cleanse the palate before the serious eating began. Next the entrée, with side dishes (six different entrees were offered), another palate cleanser, salads, followed by fruit dishes, after which a first dessert style dish, another dish of fresh fruits and compotes, and then a dessert. It was followed with cheese and port.
Those who couldn’t afford Delmonico’s instead often dined on beef alone, or a fowl, or fish caught in the already badly polluted rivers, and ingested who knows what along with their protein. Many of the poor chose to limit their food budget and spend their disposable income on alcohol instead. They were no doubt unaware of the common practice of fortifying watered down rum and beer with strychnine.
Even ice cream was found to be adulterated by the Privy Council in London, with the number of contaminants and what they comprised being, well, disgusting. In samples taken around London, ice cream was found to contain hairs from rats, cats, mice, and dogs. Bed bugs, lice, fleas, and straw were found. So was various bacteria.
Even fresh fruit in many cities was contaminated, in part because often the barges used to transport the fruit from ships to the market returned laden with garbage to dump in the water, which also as often as not provided part of the city’s drinking water. The manner and amount of poisons which were ingested by our Victorian ancestors is so astonishing that it is a wonder that we are here to read about it.