History of Food Regulation

and the FDA

Food Law
FSC-421

Ancient Food Regulation

370-285 BC Enquiry Into Plants

Theophrastus

Treatise on plants as sources of food and medicine Noted that balsum gum was mixed with adulterants for economic reasons

234-149 BC Treatise On Agriculture

Cato

Noted use of boiled down musk, salt, marble dusk and resin in wines Method to determine if wine watered down

Ancient Food Regulation

23-79 AD Natural History Pliny the

Elder

Adulteration of breads with chalk and peppers with juniper berries so many poisons are used to force wine to suit our taste and we are surprised that it is not wholesome Greatest aid to health is moderation in food Urged use of kitchen gardens

Ancient Food Regulation

131-201 AD Galen Roman physician

Warned against adulteration of pepper

where anyone has substituted some articles

Stellionatus

for another; or has put aside goods which he was obligated to deliver, or has spoiled them, he is liable for this offense

Middle Ages

England - government decided price of food

should be determined by its quality 1266 - Sale of any corrupted wine, meat, fish, bread or water that is not wholesome for mans body prohibited 1844 - Trade Guilds were major regulatory body

Searched and seized unwholesome products

1820 - Treatise of Adulteration of Food

and Culinary Poisons Frederick Accum

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Early Food Regulation in the US

Simple and local food production and distribution systems Consumer could exert substantial influence over purity or wholesomeness

Most foods grown by users, neighbors or from local marketplace where handling and production of produce could be observed
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Early Food Regulation in the US

English experience worked at first Population increased Growing urban communities Reliance upon food retailers for surveillance of handling and production Now retailer exerted the influence over suppliers
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Colonial Food Laws

Food Law in US is 300 years old 1646 Massachusetts Bread Law set price for a loaf of bread at one penny and decree how much it should

weigh Official inspectors could enter

homes and seize light bread Baking of bread was first commercial food activity in new world
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Colonial Food Laws

Profits increased if short short weights and used cheap ingredients like chalk and ground beans Mass, and NY enacted laws to inspect flour for worms

1641 inspection of exported fish, and meat to improve trade relationships

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General Food Law

First State law applying to foods generally instead of a specific product

1785 Act Against Selling Unwholesome Provisions

motives of avarice and filthy lucre, have been induced to sell diseased, corrupted, contagious or unwholesome provisions to the great nuisance of public health and peace.. Punished by fine, imprisonment, standing in pillory

where some evilly disposed persons from

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Early Food Laws

Iowa 1838 Act to punish Vendors

of Unwholesome Liquors and Provisions

Oregon Territory 1848 adopted Iowa Act California 1850 regulated sale of unwholesome provision under

Offenses Against Public Morality, Health and Police Law (exercise of

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State vs. Federal Laws

Complications when foods crossed state boundaries Conflicts of Laws Imported product more suspicious than locality produced products (Turf) b/c of lack of ability of scrutinize handling States needed to cooperate to trade
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Early Federal Regulation

1789 Act for Laying a Duty on Goods,

Wares and Merchandize Imported into the US

Place duty of specific food items (booze, molasses, sugar, coffee, cheese) to control quantities coming into US (Imported) 1883 Impure Tea Act prevented importation of adulterated teas Provided for inspections for purity and fitness
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Prohibition

Booze only food product which has been the subject of a Constitution Amendment

18th Amendment prohibited manufacture, sale or transportation, importation or exportation of intoxicating liquors
Repealed December 18th 1933 Followed by Alcohol Administration Act

Protection from adulterated or misbranded articles

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Oleomargarine

Subject of early food legislation b/c of competition between manufacturers and dairy farmers

1879 Act for Protection of Dairymen and to prevent deception in sales of butter and cheese in District of Columbia
Margarine must be stamped Margarine
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Inflence of Economics

Congress believed food supply was local matter and should be left to States

1880s American Dress beef, and bacon strong in export market to Europe
Europe started to reject American beef b/c of encounters with diseased beef Congress acted to save US beef export market
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Influence of Economics

1889 Secretary of Agriculture called for national inspection of cattle and condemnation of unfit carcasses Prohibited importation of diseased cattle Congress took positive action to improve the quality of the food supply
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The Jungle

Published February 1906 Set in Chicago stockyards Upton Sinclair, novelist concerned with unsanitary conditions in meat packing plants President Theodore Roosevelt read book and called for investigation 4 months later, Meat Inspection Amendment was passed as small part of appropriations bill, not a separate

act of Congress

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Harvey Wiley

First Chief Chemist of Bureau of Chemistry of USDA Examined foods for evidence of adulteration Formed Poison Squad President of AOAC for 25 years Helped to develop sugar industry in US
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Pure Foods

(1906)

1906 Senate Committee on Manufacturers recommended a Pure Food Law

Dr. Wiley played big role lobbying Standards established for many imported foods Six new branch laboratories of Division of Chemistry established
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Cocaine

Coca - aine ("Fruit of the Coca plant") Toot, snow, white powder, young girl, blow No laws prohibiting drug sales or use Cocaine used as Pep pills and prescribed to women for medicinal purposes Cocaine treatment centers treated addicts and Cocaine freely prescribed

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Cocaine

Opium use prohibited in the west in the early 1900s due to perception that it caused Asians to become violent Cocaine use prohibited in south due to perception that it caused cocaine crazed negroes that could not be stopped by regular bullets

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Cocaine

Prior to 1906, cocaine freely used in food products, (coca cola), medicines

Given freely to migrant and dock worker because increased their productivity
Southern fears of violence from drug crazed minorities prompted call for some type of regulation of cocaine and opium
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Cocaine Regulation

Result was congressional action to introduce control legislation

Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

was first attempt to regulate drugs and foods Doctors no longer prescribed cocaine and all Treatment centers were closed Patients became addicts / Doctors became pushers / Black market
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Pure Food and Drug Act 1906

Passed June 22, 1906

an

act for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious food, drugs, medicines and liquors.

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Institutional History
The FDA
1862-1890 1890-1901 1901-1927 1927-1930 1930-1940 1940-1953 1953-1979 Chemical Division Division of Chemistry Bureau of Chemistry Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration FDA FDA FDA USDA USDA USDA USDA USDA Federal Security Agency Dept. Health Education and Welfare Dept. of Health and Human Services
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1979 - Date

FDA