Between 1910 and 1960 there was a weird fascination with the purity of things. Ivory soap (99% pure) is a hold over from that time. It was probably coded eugenics or some racist undercurrent among consumers.
Read Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and you’ll definitely understand the obsession with purity. It was about as regulated as “100% natural” is these days, but at least meant that your “100% pure beef” was less likely to be cut with sawdust or rat meat or something.
Between 1910 and 1960 there was a weird fascination with the purity of things. Ivory soap (99% pure) is a hold over from that time. It was probably coded eugenics or some racist undercurrent among consumers.
Read Sinclair’s “The Jungle” and you’ll definitely understand the obsession with purity. It was about as regulated as “100% natural” is these days, but at least meant that your “100% pure beef” was less likely to be cut with sawdust or rat meat or something.