The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906
  • Home
  • Background
    • German Trichinosis
    • Embalmed Beef Scandal
    • The Industry
    • Food Regulation History
  • Public Exposure
    • Muckraking Journalists
    • The Jungle
    • Women Involved
  • Stakeholders
    • Roosevelt
    • Harvey W. Wiley >
      • The Poison Squad
  • Pure Food and Drug Act
    • New Rights
    • Enforced Resonsibilities
  • Reaction
  • GMOs
  • Supplements
    • Documents
    • Interviews >
      • Margaret O'Mara
      • Brian Casserly
      • Kendra Smith-Howard
  • Processes
    • Bibliography
    • Process Paper

An Act for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes.

"This act, which the Bureau of Chemistry was charged to administer, prohibited the interstate transport of unlawful food and drugs under penalty of seizure of the questionable products and/or prosecution of the responsible parties. The basis of the law rested on the regulation of product labeling rather than pre-market approval. Drugs, defined in accordance with the standards of strength, quality, and purity in the United States Pharmacopoeia and the National Formulary, could not be sold in any other condition unless the specific variations from the applicable standards were plainly stated on the label. Foods were not defined according to analogous standards, but the law prohibited the addition of any ingredients that would substitute for the food, conceal damage, pose a health hazard, or constitute a filthy or decomposed substance. Interpretations of the food provisions in the law led to many, sometimes protracted, court battles." -U.S. FDA

Click Here for Full Text of the Pure Food and Drug Act
 
During the half century following the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act an exponential amount of action was taken in the direction of more firmly protecting consumer rights, as well as the demand commercial honesty and responsibility to be met at certain standards.

(timeline text quoted from the FDA, official website)


"If the manufacturer opted to list the weight or measure of a food, this had to be done accurately. Also, the food or drug label could not be false or misleading in any particular, and the presence and amount of eleven dangerous ingredients, including alcohol, heroin, and cocaine, had to be listed." (FDA)
Back to the Poison Squad
Next to New Rights
Grace Wang and Abby Orler | Senior Division Group Website | Word Count: 1187