History and Laws behind the Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906

History and Laws behind the Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906

As one of the primary federal consumer-protection laws in existence today, The Federal Food and Drug Act of 1906 was a law that had two primary goals for food and drugs: (a) forbid harmful ingredients and additions and (b) demand labeling of ingredients to inform consumers. According to Janssen (1981), it was hoped that the enactment of this law would eliminate adulterations and poisons sometimes found in foods, sometimes in drugs and often in both. The foundation of food and drug protection came from the development of scientific methods of analysis by the Federal Bureau of Chemistry, which we know today as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (Janssen).

Brief History of the Legislation

The regulations of the FDA which we know today were born from a grass roots effort in the 1870’s, the Pure Food Movement. Originally, it focused on trade interests because of competition from “replacement” food products (glucose for sugar, “lard” from cottonseed oil, oleomargarine for butter, etc.) and the intolerable differences in existing state laws to which manufacturers had to comply (Janssen, 1981). As industrialization created a demand to provide the rapidly increasing localized populations with food from distant areas, a “buyer beware” era emerged. From the use of chemical preservatives and toxic colors to the development of “patent medicines” which contained opium, morphine, heroin and cocaine; all were sold without restriction and labels did not list ing...

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...regulations, I believe the FDA should take stronger enforcement action to ensure consumer protection and ultimately consumer safety.

References

Elsner, P., & Maibach, H. (2000). Cosmeceuticals: Drugs vs. Cosmetics [Electronic version]. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc.

Janssen, W. (1981). The story of the laws behind the labels. U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Retrieved September 9, 2008, from

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/history1.html#toc

Langran, R. & Schnitzer, M. (2007). Government, Business, and the American Economy [Electronic version]. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Young, J. (1981). The long struggle for the 1906 Law. U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Retrieved September 9, 2008, from

http://www.foodsafety.gov/~lrd/history2.html