Pure Food and Drug Act

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PURE FOOD AND DRUG ACT

June 30, 1906, was a red-letter day for those who sought progressive reform and consumer protection in the United States. On that date the U.S. government passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, the first in a series of legislation designed to regulate the quality of food and pharmaceutical products. The act banned manufacturers from selling mislabeled products, from adulterating food with unacceptable ingredients, and from misleading consumers with false claims. The passage of the act marked a victory both over certain manufacturers who wished to avoid regulation, as well as some politicians who questioned the constitutionality of the act. Those who fought for consumer protection found that their battle was only just beginning, however, and that effective reform would take place only with a series of acts passed over many years. Government regulation of this kind strongly affected the ways in which foods and drugs were prepared, packaged, labeled, sold, and advertised in the United States.

Prior to 1906 the regulation of food production and commerce fell mainly on the state and local authorities. In the colonial period, the colonies followed the British precedent of establishing laws to ensure standards of decency for such mainstays as bread and butter, while coastal colonies called for mandatory inspection of fish and other seafood. The laws did not extend to drugs, however, and their production remained largely unregulated. State laws scarcely differed from the colonial legislation, which was often loosely enforced. Since food and drug consumption was for the most part safe, there was little reason to push for more stringent regulation.

It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century, with the rise of industrialization and increasing urban populations, that fraudulent practices in the manufacturing of food and drugs became all too common. Food processors often added fillers to extend and cheapen their products: Water thinned out milk, sawdust bulked up flour, and sand stretched sugar. The development of new chemicals that enhanced the color, flavor, and texture of food made it easier for manufacturers to mask their manipulations. Unbeknownst to consumers, dyed and jarred apple scraps and hayseeds sometimes sold as "strawberry jam." With these practices corrupting the marketplace, consumers found it difficult to judge the "truth in labeling" of commodities. Health risks increased, and state laws seemed insufficient to protecting the vulnerable public. The time was ripe for reform.

Harvey Washington Wiley (1844–1930), professor of chemistry at Purdue University and evangelical Christian, led a campaign to stop wayward manufacturers from selling elixirs and bottled medicine which was often no more than alcohol-laden placebo. Wiley was appointed chief chemist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1883. He led a campaign for federal regulation of food production and commerce. He was not alone in his efforts: many upstanding, reputable manufacturers wished for regulations that would outlaw the shady practices of their dishonest competitors. Meanwhile state food and drug officials asked for the federal support necessary to effect such sweeping change. Wiley enlisted scientists to analyze the ingredients in adulterated foods and to conduct tests on harmful preservatives, food colorings, and other chemicals, effectively amassing evidence to present to legislators. Interested as much in the moral as in the medical implications of ingesting tainted foods, the chemist did everything possible to dramatize the issue and to galvanize the public.

Two events gave Wiley's efforts a much-needed boost. The first event was the 1898 "embalmed beef" scandal, which highlighted the quality of food served to soldiers in the Spanish-American War (1898). The second event was the January 1906 publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, a deeply disturbing novel about unsanitary conditions in the Chicago meatpacking industry. Sinclair's best-selling novel—with its grotesque descriptions of rats, filth, and even human body parts that found their way into goods sold as "pickled meats"—was the final straw. President Theodore Roosevelt (1933–1945), who did not always respond to Wiley's sensationalist style of lobbying, reportedly read The Jungle with interest. It is no coincidence that the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed only five months after the book's publication.

The bill was not as thorough as Wiley hoped it would be, but it did represent a triumph for consumer protection in the United States. It forbade the adulteration of food, the addition of harmful ingredients, and the use of erroneous or misleading labels. Interstate and foreign commerce of both food and drugs were to be diligently monitored, and drug manufacturing was to comply with purity standards listed in two authoritative pharmaceutical reference books. Critics of the bill noted the absence of a specific list of purity standards for food manufacturing, which made the law difficult to enforce in certain cases. A Bureau of Chemistry, operating under Wiley, was established to propose a system of enforcement, but the bureau (which was renamed the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] in 1927) often met with opposition from manufacturers and farmers who resisted regulation.

Amendments to the Pure Food and Drug Act— such as one that required manufacturers to list net weight on products' labels (1923) and another that specifically defined the quality standards of canned foods (1930)—helped to plug certain loopholes and ultimately made the bill more effective. The need for certain reforms required new legislation, though, such as the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which extended regulatory laws to cover the cosmetics and therapeutic device industries. The FDA gained power to set certain standards and to inflict penalties on those who failed to comply. Ultimately, the Pure Food and Drug Act and subsequent legislation effectively altered the ways in which manufacturing and commerce were conducted in the United States. The events of 1906 set into motion a trend toward consumer protection that persisted throughout the remainder of the twentieth century.

See also: Food Processing, Lever Food Control Act, Pharmaceutical Industry, Regulation