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
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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)
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