The US Food and Drug Administration and Its Importance

The Food and Drug Administration has played an important role in the American society known today. In fact the Food and Drug Administration affects every citizen of the United States. Its main goal is to ensure knowledge of products and protection to every citizen that range from atmospheric hazards to the medicine and food consumed in the United States. A strong workforce of inspectors is responsible for monitoring trading and safety standards in the food and drug industries. Although many tasks done by the FDA go unnoticed by the average citizen, an absence of the FDA would most definitely not go unnoticed. However the importance of the FDA today is just as important as to how it got initiated.
Wallace F. Jansseen, an FDA historian, in his article “The Story of the Laws Behind the Labels” writes about the initiation of the agencies that later developed into the FDA. Jansseen points out that the earliest forms of the FDA started out as the Department of Agriculture in 1862. Charles M. Wetherill was the first chemist that as a part of the Department of Agriculture. His main purpose was to test food, fertilizers, soils, and other agricultural substances. At first his experiments revolved around agricultural research but inevitably became involved in food safety to find adulterated substances. Jansseen points out that many of the substances that were tested were counterfeit, contaminated, diluted, and decomposed drugs. Eventually his practice of finding adulterated substances was noticed in 1906 as part of the Food and Drugs Act.
The 1906 Food and Drugs Act, also known as the Wiley Act, was legislation that was passed as a result of efforts from Peter Collier and Dr. Harvey W. Wiley. Peter Collier was the one of the h...

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...s her claim with the help of Terri Lewis who is an FDA physical science technician. Lewis stated that all but 2.5% of the staff in her office are on furlough. Lewis is quoted “Foreign food is imported from other countries every day and with much fewer inspectors it makes the job less secure”.
The FDA most definitely has the important task to assure U.S. citizens the availability of safe food and drugs. This importance was realized by the men that worked toward moving it into legislation. The resultant agency continued to enforce its policies consistently into the modern century without a loss of momentum. However if the FDA is impaired by means of a governmental shutdown then it is of great importance to continue the consistency in food and drug standards that it holds. Standards that hold great importance today like the standards of the FDA’s initiation.