Early history of food regulation in the United States
The history of early food regulation in the United States started with the 1906
The Pure Foods Movement
The Pure Foods Movement of the 1870s was a
Impact of women's clubs
The
Inspired by the Association, 11 other city health protective associations grew out of the need to clean up
Working mostly only on a local level, they set the tone for the Pure Food movement that would soon follow. Many club women were heavily involved in the temperance movement and began to associate adulterated foods as having the same consequences as alcohol abuse. This is because both inflicted harm on communities. Both were common abuses prevalent in poor communities, and led to malnourishment, violence and other social problems. Women’s organizations began addressing these issues and broadened their activities beyond normal WCTU activities and more women who wanted to protect their communities joined their cause.[8] Members of the WCTU, the Ladies Health Protective Association, and women's clubs laid the foundation for further "pure food, drink, and drug campaigns in the early 1880s, while their activities centered around study, self-improvement, and philanthropy".[8]
Harvey W. Wiley
Upton Sinclair and The Jungle
In 1906,
The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act (Wiley Act)
Origins
Before the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, most food oversight was mandated to state laws, which were enacted during the colonial days and served mainly trade interests.[1] They set standards of weight, and "provided for inspections of exports like salt meats, fish and flour".[1] In 1848, the first national law concerned with regulating food come out of the Mexican–American War, and "banned the importation of adulterated drugs".[13] Food inspection was largely thought to be the duty of the consumer, not the government.[14]
Changes in technology
With the advent of modern machinery, food production (especially grain) moved forward at an alarming pace.[15] For example, the “canning line” increased the efficiency of canning foods in an industrial setting.[15] An 1886 report by the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics claimed that “New machinery has displaced fully 50 percent of the muscular labor formerly required to do a given amount of work”.[15] Because of these improvements to agriculture, packaged cereals and canned foods became popular.[15] Synthetic medicines (made in labs instead of natural medicines) and chemicals that altered the growing and processing of food began to appear.[13]
Processed food
Processed food was more easily transported, thanks to improvements in transportation.
This began to worry high-quality producers who worried that their products might be undermined by deceitful goods.[9] Farmers felt threatened by unfair competition as shady producers adulterated "fertilizers, deodorized rotten eggs, revived rancid butter, and substituted glucose for honey".[16] Real strawberry jam producers felt threatened by the bad strawberry “spread” substitutes, since consumers could not tell the difference while buying.[16]
Court response
The first court case involving "adulterated" products was in 1886, in which farmers pitted quote “the reigning champion,
Provisions of the act
The law "forbade interstate and foreign commerce in adulterated and misbranded food and drugs".[14] If a product was found to be in violation, it could be seized and condemned; if a seller was found violating they could be fined and jailed. The law did not define food standards by chemists, but it did prohibit the "adulteration of food by the removal of valuable constituents, the substitution of ingredients so as to reduce quality, the addition of deleterious ingredients and the use of spoiled animal and vegetable products".[14] Misleading or false labeling was now considered misbranding and thus illegal.
Effects of the act
The 1906 US Pure Food and Drug Act “defined food adulterations as a danger to health and as consumer fraud”.
The American Chamber of Horrors
Aided by
Included were examples of harmful drugs, including Banbar, a “cure” for diabetes, protected under the 1906 law, and Lash Lure, an eyelash dye that caused many of its women users to go blind.[22] Also legal under the old law was Radithor, a “radium-containing tonic that sentenced users to a slow and painful death.” This, along with the above court cases, caused the FDA to focus on replacing the now outdated “Wiley Act” of 1906.
The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938
The Federal
Provisions of the act
This resulted in the 1938
Changes from the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act
The following is a list of substantial changes from the previous 1906 law[28]
- Drug manufacturers were required to provide scientific proof that new products could be safely used before putting them on the market.
- Cosmetics and therapeutic devices were regulated, for the first time.
- Proof of fraud was no longer required to stop false claims for drugs.
- Addition of poisonous substances to foods was prohibited except where unavoidable or required in production. Safe tolerances were authorized for residues of such substances, for example pesticides.
- Specific authority was provided for factory inspections.
- Food standards were required to be set up when needed “to promote honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers.”
- Federal court injunctions against violations were added to the previous legal remedies of product seizures and criminal prosecutions.
Notes
- ^ a b c Janssen 24
- ^ a b c Young 19
- ^ a b Goodwin 17
- ^ a b Goodwin 18
- ^ Goodwin 19
- ^ Goodwin 22
- ^ Goodwin 30
- ^ a b Goodwin 35
- ^ a b c d e Swann 10
- ^ a b Goodwin 250
- ^ Garraty 591
- ^ a b Goodwin 251
- ^ a b c Young 17
- ^ a b c Young 21
- ^ a b c d Garraty 478
- ^ a b c d Young 18
- ^ Garraty 590
- ^ Junod 176
- ^ Junod 167
- ^ Schesinger 205
- ^ Schesinger 172
- ^ Swann 12
- ^ a b Janssen 28
- ^ Wax 1, Janssen 28
- ^ Cavers 2
- ^ Junod 180
- ^ Wax 1
- ^ Janssen 29
References
- Cavers, David F. "The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938: Its Legislative History and Its Substantive Provisions." Law and Contemporary Problems 6 (1939): 2-42. doi:10.2307/1189727
- Garraty, John A., and Mark C. Carnes. American Nation. 12th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.
- Goodwin, Lorine S. The Pure Food and Drink Crusaders. Jefferson: McFarland &Co, 1999.
- Janssen, Wallace F. "The Story of the Laws Behind the Labels." The Food and Drug Administration. Hauppauge: Nova Science, 2003. 23-35.
- Junod, Suzane W. "Food Standards in the United States: the case of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich." Food, Science, Policy and Regulation in the Twentieth Century. New York: Routledge, 2000. 167-89.
- Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
- Swann, John P. "History of the FDA." The Food and Drug Administration. Hauppauge: Nova Science, 2003. 9-16.
- Wax, Paul M. "Elixirs, Diluents, and the Passage of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act." History of Medicine 122 (1995): 456-61.
- Young, James H. "The Long Struggle for 1906 Law." The Food and Drug Administration. Hauppauge: Nova Science, 2003. 17-22.