FTec 163 Food Quality Assurance

1. Search and make a written report of other personalities (individual or group, local or
international) who made contribution to the field of quality.

Harvey Washington Wiley (October 18, 1844 – June 30, 1930) was an American chemist who
fought for the passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and subsequently worked at
the Good Housekeeping Institute laboratories. He was the first commissioner of the United
States Food and Drug Administration. Wiley was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin
Institute in 1910.

Early life and career[edit]

Wiley was born on October 18, 1844, in a log farmhouse near Kent, in Jefferson County, Indiana, the
son of a farmer. He enrolled in nearby Hanover College in 1863 and studied for about one year until
he enlisted with the Union Army in 1864, during the American Civil War. He finished the war as a
corporal in Company I of the 137th Indiana Infantry Regiment.[1] He returned to Hanover in 1865,
majored in the humanities and was a top graduate (A.B.) in 1867. Wiley earned
his M.D. from Indiana Medical College in 1871. He was professor of Greek and Latin at Butler
College, Indianapolis, 1868-70.[2]
After earning his medical degree Wiley taught chemistry at the Medical College, where he led
Indiana's first laboratory course in chemistry beginning in 1873. At Harvard University, he was
awarded a B.S. degree in 1873 after only a few months of intense effort. He then accepted a faculty
position in chemistry at Purdue University, which held its first classes in 1874. He was also
appointed state chemist of Indiana.
In 1878, Wiley went to Germany where he attended the lectures of August Wilhelm von Hofmann—
the celebrated German discoverer of organic tar derivatives like aniline. While there, Wiley was
elected to the prestigious German Chemical Society founded by Hofmann. Wiley spent most of his
time in the Imperial Food Laboratory in Bismarck working with Eugene Sell, mastering the use of
the polariscope and studying sugar chemistry. Upon his return to Purdue, Wiley was asked by the
Indiana State Board of Health to analyze the sugars and syrups on sale in the state to detect any
adulteration. He spent his last years at Purdue studying sorghum culture and sugar chemistry,
working to help develop a strong domestic sugar industry. His first published paper in 1881
discussed the adulteration of sugar with glucose.

Government career[edit]
Wiley was offered the position of Chief Chemist in the United States Department of
Agriculture by George Loring, the Commissioner of Agriculture, in 1882. Loring was seeking to
replace his chemist with someone who would employ a more objective approach to the study of
sorghum, whose potential as a sugar source was far from proven. Wiley accepted the offer after
being passed over for the presidency of Purdue, allegedly because he was "too young and too
jovial",[3] unorthodox in his religious belief, and also a bachelor.[4] Wiley brought to Washington a
practical knowledge of agriculture, a sympathetic approach to the problems of agricultural industry
and an untapped talent for public relations.[5]
After assisting Congress in their earliest questions regarding the safety of the chemical preservatives
then being employed in foods, Wiley was appropriated $5,000 in 1902 to study the effects of a diet
including various preservatives, on human volunteers. These "poison squad" studies drew national
attention to the need for a federal food and drug law.
Wiley soon became a crusader and coalition builder in support of national food and drug regulation.
His work, and that of Alice Lakey, spurred one million American women to write to the White House
in support of the Pure Food and Drug Act.[6]
Wiley was nicknamed "Father of the Pure Food and Drugs Act" when it became law in 1906. He
wrote two editions of Foods and Their Adulteration (1907 and 1911), which described for an
audience of non-specialists the history, preparation and subsequent adulteration of basic foodstuffs.
He was a founding father of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists, and left a broad and
substantial legacy to the American pure food movement as its "crusading chemist".
The enforcement of the federal Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was assigned to the Bureau of
Chemistry, instead of the Department of Commerce or the Department of the Interior, which was a
tribute to the scientific qualifications that the Bureau of Chemistry brought to its studies of food and
drug adulteration, and misbranding. The first food and drug inspectors were hired to complement the
work of the laboratory scientists, and an inspection program was launched which revolutionized the
country's food supply within the first decade under the new federal law.
Wiley's tenure generated controversy over his administration of the 1906 statute. Concerns over
chemical preservatives, which had not been specifically addressed in the law, continued to be
problematic. The Secretary of Agriculture appointed a Referee Board of Consulting Scientists,
headed by Ira Remsen of Johns Hopkins University, to repeat Wiley's human trials of preservatives.
The use of saccharin, bleached flour, caffeine, and benzoate of soda were all important issues which
had to be settled by the courts in the early days under the new law.
Under Wiley's leadership, however, the Bureau of Chemistry grew significantly in strength and
stature after assuming responsibility for enforcement of the 1906 Act. Between 1906 and 1912,
Wiley's staff expanded from 110 to 146. Appropriations, which had been $155,000 in 1906, were
$963,780 in 1912. The Bureau moved into its own building and used the healing symbol
of Aesculapius's staff, or Ophiuchus. In 1911, his enemies urged his dismissal from the Department
of Agriculture over the technicality that an expert in his department had been paid above the legal
rate. But later in the year, President William Howard Taft wrote a letter that fully exonerated Wiley.[2]
On March 15, 1912, Wiley resigned his leadership of the Chemistry Bureau because, from nearly the
beginning, he had been antagonized in the enforcement of the Pure Food And Drugs Act, and he
had seen the fundamental principles of that act either paralyzed or discredited.[7] Taft expressed his
regret at Wiley's resignation and Agriculture Secretary James Wilson spoke highly of how "valuable"
Wiley had been, and in turn, Wiley thanked Wilson for the "personal kindness and regard shown
him."[7]

Work at Good Housekeeping[edit]

This section needs
expansion. You can help
by adding to it. (February 2020)

After his resignation from government work in 1912, Wiley took over the laboratories of Good
Housekeeping Magazine, where he continued his work on behalf of the consuming public. His
disapprobation of “drugged” products included cola drinks; he warned against the caffeine in them
vehemently. In a famous action he brought against The Coca-Cola Company in 1911, he contended
that it was illegal to use the name Coca-Cola when there was no actual cocaine in the drink, and
also that it was illegal for it to contain caffeine as an additive. Perversely, this was as much as to say
that the product ought to have contained cocaine and not caffeine. Still, the case was a landmark in
developing standards for truth in labeling. The beverage continued to be brewed, even as of late
September 2016, with de-cocaine-ized coca leaves and cola nuts.
He remained with Good Housekeeping for 18 years.

Death[edit]
Harvey Wiley died at his home in Washington, D.C., on June 30, 1930, the 24th anniversary of the
signing of the Pure Food and Drug law. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery with his
wife, Anna Kelton Wiley (1877–1964), whom he married in 1911.

Legacy[edit]
The Liberty Ship S.S. Harvey W. Wiley was one of 2751 World War II Liberty Ships built between
1941 and 1945. She was a tanker laid down September 15, 1943, launched October 15, 1943, sold
by the government in 1947, and scrapped in 1969.
The U.S. Post Office issued a 3-cent postage stamp in Wiley's honor on June 27, 1956, in
conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the 1906 Act.
The Harvey W. Wiley Award is AOAC International's most prestigious scientific award; it was
established in 1956 and has been presented annually since 1957 to a scientist (or group of
scientists) who have made an outstanding contribution to analytical method development in an area
of interest to AOAC International. AOAC International was founded in 1884 as the Association of
Official Agricultural Chemists. Wiley was a founding member, President in 1886, Secretary from
1889 to 1912, and Honorary President until his death in 1930.
Wiley has several buildings named in his honor. He was honored by Hanover College with a "Wiley
Residence Hall" inaugurated in 1956. He was also honored by Purdue University in 1958 when the
"Harvey W. Wiley Residence Hall" was opened northwest of the main academic campus. The FDA's
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) operations are located in the Harvey W.
Wiley Federal Building in College Park, Maryland, which was constructed in 2001 and named after
Wiley in 2002.
His birthplace near Kent is commemorated with an Indiana historic marker sign placed at the corner
of IN-256 and CR-850W. The marker was sponsored by the Association of Food and Drug Officials
and erected in 1981.
French State Leaders named him a Chevalier of the Order of the Légion d'honneur in 1909.
The Harvey Washington Wiley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry is an honor established through
the Chemistry department at Purdue University. The position has been occupied since 1997 by Dr.
Dale W. Margerum.
The home he built at Somerset, Maryland, in 1893, the Wiley-Ringland House, was listed on
the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.[8]
Wiley's achievements are the subject of Deborah Blum's 2018 nonfiction book The Poison Squad:
One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, which
was the basis for The Poison Squad, a documentary film that first aired on American Experience on
January 28, 2020.[9][10]
Some libertarian philosophers [11] cite Wiley's work as a cornerstone to increasing the breadth and
depth of state coercion in the United States, arguing that freedom in medicine, food, and the right to
bodily self-ownership began a sharp decline with his measures.[12]
 We have food safety laws thanks to
19th century “poison squad”
Ars chats with author Deborah Blum about her new book, The Poison Squad.
JENNIFER OUELLETTE - 11/26/2018, 10:00 PM

Enlarge / Members of Harvey Washington Wiley's "poison squad" voluntarily dined on borax and formaldehyde
to test the safety of these once-common food preservatives.

FDA/Public domain

144WITH 58 POSTERS PARTICIPATING

 SHARE ON FACEBOOK
 SHARE ON TWITTER


As you gathered to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday last week—avoiding romaine

lettuce potentially contaminated by E. coli—we hope you remembered to give thanks for the
landmark 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. Signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, it
was the first regulatory law to enforce food safety standards in America, along with the Federal
Meat Inspection Act.

It was known as "Dr. Wiley's Law," in honor of Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who served as
chief chemist of the US agriculture department at the time and proved a tireless crusader for
consumer protection. He even recruited several of his young male employees to ingest common
chemical food additives to test their safety, dubbed the "Poison Squad." The story of his decades-
long fight is the subject of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Blum's fascinating new
book, The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of
the Twentieth Century.

Blum has a soft spot for stories about scientists who challenged the status quo—people who were
also complicated, obsessive, and difficult personalities. "I'm not sure you can change the world
unless you're all of those things," she says. Her first book, Love at Goon Park (2002), focused on
psychologist Harry Harlow, who studied the effects of neglect on primates in his lab and went on
to revolutionize how we think about the value of love and affection. Ghost Hunters (2007)
explored William James' quest to find scientific proof of life after death in the late 19th century.
Enlarge / The Poison Squad brings to life a forgotten period in the US when unregulated food could sicken and
kill you.

YouTube/Penguin Press

It was Blum's bestselling 2010 book, The Poisoner's Handbook, that served as a precursor of
sorts to her latest offering. Set in Jazz Age New York City, it's all about the city's first medical
examiner, Charles Norris, who joined forces with the city's first toxicologist, Alexander Gettler,
to implement the first rigorous standards for forensic toxicology, the better to catch murderers.

Blum stumbled upon Wiley's work while researching poisons and toxins in the early 20th century
and found herself captivated by the subject. She spent weeks at the Library of Congress, poring
over Wiley's extensive papers: not just reports and private letters, but also memos, telegrams, and
an entire folder filled with the marketing flyers companies sent to grocers and manufacturers,
encouraging them to use their additives to increase profits.

"I thought, what in the world was food like back then, that would lead us to this point in 1902
where a government scientist is deliberately poisoning other government employees?" she says.
"I realized I'd been telling myself a fairy tale about the wondrous, pink-cheeked nature of
19th century healthy food." In reality, the country was in a period of transition, as the industrial
revolution marched onward and more people moved from rural areas to cities in search of jobs.
This had a deleterious impact on the food supply chain, as food had to travel farther in an age
without refrigeration.

"It wasn't illegal even if you

killed someone."
The lack of regulation meant that companies could pretty much put whatever they wanted into
food with no fear of being held accountable. "[Food] wasn't safety tested, because there were no
rules requiring that," says Blum. "It wasn't labeled because there were no rules requiring that
anyone tell you what was in your food. And it wasn't illegal even if you killed someone."

Companies were adding copper to vegetables to make them look greener and 20 Mule Team
Borax to butter as a preservative—assuming it was butter and not beef tallow or ground-up cow
stomach dyed to look like butter. Spices contained things like ground coconut shells, charred
rope, brick dust, even floor sweepings. Honey was often little more than dyed corn syrup. The
phrase "a muddy cup of coffee" might date back to this era, when ground coffee typically
contained dyed sawdust, tree bark, or charred bone, and fake coffee beans were made out of wax
and dirt. "I'm especially bitter about this, because I love coffee," says Blum.

Dairy suppliers were among the worst offenders, adding pureed calf brains to milk to make it
look more like rich cream, thinning the milk with water and gelatin, and then adding dyes, chalk,
or plaster dust to correct the color. Worst of all, they added formaldehyde—then widely used as
an embalming fluid to slow the decomposition of corpses—to milk as a preservative. (The
additives were given innocuous names like Rosaline and Preservaline.) Hundreds of children
were sickened, and many died, from the tainted milk. Formaldehyde was also used as a
preservative in meat.

Enlarge / Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley in the laboratory he set up to test food safety.

CORBIS/Corbis/Getty Images

That was the driving force behind Wiley's radical "Poison Squad" project. (He actually referred
to it as "hygienic table trials"; journalists gave it the more colorful moniker.)  He recruited
several young men to be his guinea pigs—all of whom signed waivers—and provided them with
three healthy square meals a day. The catch: half of them also were given capsules containing
borax, salicylic acid, or formaldehyde. Wiley started with the borax, thinking it would be the
safest additive, and was alarmed at how quickly his squad members sickened.

The results convinced Wiley that federal regulation was necessary to protect American citizens
from the dangerous and fraudulent practices of food suppliers. Naturally, industry leaders pushed
back against Wiley's proposed legislation. The National Association of Food Manufacturers
formed around this time, along with chemical industry manufacturing associations, as companies
pooled their resources to oppose the ominous specter of government regulation. They even
instituted a smear campaign against Wiley. One trade journal called him "the man who is doing
all he can to destroy American business."

"[Wiley] basically set his government career

on fire, because he was so determined to
force this legislative change."
His reputation suffered but not his resolve: Wiley merely redoubled his efforts. "He basically set
his government career on fire, because he was so determined to force this legislative change,"
says Blum. "He becomes much more of a public crusader than a scientist."

It was novelist Upton Sinclair's groundbreaking novel, The Jungle, that eventually tipped the
balance. Based on Sinclair's first-hand reporting of the dreadful conditions at meat-packing
plants, the details in the manuscript were so shocking that his initial publisher, MacMillan,
refused to publish it and dumped him as a client. Doubleday ended up publishing the novel,
although not before sending its own investigators to the plants to verify the details. Even
President Roosevelt didn't believe it at first when Doubleday sent him the book (and their
accompanying report). His own investigators reported back that, if anything, the conditions were
even worse.

With Roosevelt's support, Congress finally passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food
and Drug Act in 1906. Even though the final bills were much more watered down than Wiley
would have liked, it was a major legislative victory. But enforcing the new law was an entirely
different challenge, and Wiley found himself involved in numerous lawsuits. His case against
flour manufacturers to prohibit them from bleaching their product—thereby adding nitrates to the
mix—was ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court. But other lawsuits were more
successful.
Enlarge / "Only the brave dare eat the fare": the intrepid members of Wiley's Poison Squad.

FDA/Public domain

Blum covers the case against Coca-Cola in depth; the popular beverage originally contained a
fair amount of cocaine (as the name implies). The state of Georgia insisted they remove the drug
in 1902, and Coca-Cola replaced it with massive amounts of caffeine instead. The case went all
the way to the Supreme Court, which sided with Wiley and the government. Coca-Cola was
forced to cut the amount of caffeine in the beverage by half and pay all court costs.

In the end, the free press and American consumers made the biggest difference by keeping the
issue on the front page and by refusing to purchase food products that contained dangerous
additives, respectively. This forced companies to adopt better practices.

Eventually, Wiley realized that he could no longer be effective in promoting further regulation in
his government position and resigned. His new job: Good Housekeeping magazine hired him to
run their internal testing laboratory at double his government salary. Wiley was responsible for
testing all manner of consumer products: food, drink, cosmetics, cleansers, and so forth. If they
passed his stringent standards, they received the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
The Poison Squad is an engaging, sometimes enraging, read about the forgotten public health
crusader who helped ensure our food is safe to eat. It's also very timely, coming at a time when
there is a significant anti-regulation push from the current administration—including a proposal
to move responsibility for food safety out of the Food and Drug Administration to the more
agribusiness-friendly Department of Agriculture.

"It would be a terrible mistake to roll back any of the regulations that we have in place [for food
safety]," says Blum. "It's not that all businesses are evil. But there are always going to be people
who take advantage if there are no standards in place. The 19th century tells us that, so let's not
repeat that mistake."

2. List at least 10 characteristics of a manager/supervisor and 10 characteristics of workers

which you feel is necessary in achieving success in the food manufacturing business.
Discuss by giving sample situation(s) why the listed characteristics are necessary.

Heroes of Food Safety: Harvey

Wiley, Pioneer and Activist
Written by SmartSense | Food Safety

Continuing our celebration of Food Safety Education Month, we honor Harvey Wiley, an

American chemist best known for his leadership in the passage of the landmark Pure

Food and Drug Act of 1906. He was also the first commissioner of the United States

Food and Drug Administration, and the pioneer food safety champion who paved the

way for today’s leading consumer advocates.

 
 Harvey Wiley in his lab. Source:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/10/08/654066794/how-a-19th-century-

chemist-took-on-the-food-industry-with-a-grisly-experiment

Mr. Wiley Goes to Washington

In the last few decades of the 19th century, the U.S. underwent massive

industrialization, leading to a burgeoning urban population increasingly dependent on

foods preserved with chemicals untested for human safety. Unfortunately, at this time in

our history, food manufacturing was not regulated by government controls. You can

imagine the consequences: a marketplace inundated with low-quality, often toxic food

products.

Corrupt producers were free to tamper with ingredients, frequently substituting cheaper

and inferior components for those listed on the package label. For insistence,

cottonseed oil was typically blended into olive oil, honey was diluted with corn syrup,

and even baby formula was laced with morphine. Equally problematic, commonly used

preservatives – such as borax and sulfur – were potential poisons. Clearly the time was

ripe for reform.

Register for our webinar to learn about case studies focused on

foodborne illness incidents that guided food safety regulations, and take
a look at blockchain technology through four different lenses: politcal,
economic, geographic, and societal.
 

Enter Harvey Wiley, MD. While teaching chemistry at Purdue University, in 1883 he left

academia and moved to Washington, D.C., accepting an offer to act as Chief Chemist

at what is now the United States Department of Agriculture. Wiley brought to

the USDA a practical knowledge of farming, an understanding of food processing, and

talent for public relations.

In his new, authoritative position, Wiley took advantage of his national visibility and soon

became a crusader for ‘pure food.’ He launched a series of bulletins addressing the

adulteration of dairy products, spices, and alcoholic beverages. He also conducted

speaking tours across the country to raise public awareness about the mislabeling of

food, eventually becoming a household name. In 1899, he issued an annual report

warning that impure foods posed a direct threat to millions of Americans, especially

children, the elderly, and the sick who were unknowingly ingesting dangerous

chemicals.

Enter the Poison Squad

Wiley believed that manufacturers should be responsible for proving that their choice of

food additives was safe for public consumption. But because he was unable to enforce

regulation, in 1902 he decided to conduct his own studies, hoping that the results would

scientifically demonstrate which preservatives were harmful, and at what levels. With a

budget of $5,000, Wiley organized a group of healthy young men, dubbed the Poison
Squad by the press, who volunteered as human “guinea pigs” to see what effects

adulterated foods might have on their health.

The Poison Squad. Source: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/food-testing-in-1902-

featured-a-tuxedoclad-poison-squad-eating-plates-of-acid

These men agreed to participate for six months and not to hold the government

responsible for any illness or injury that might result. Their only rewards were high-
quality meals prepared by a certified chef, and the chance to promote scientific

knowledge. The squad pledged to eat all of their meals at a shared and supervised

“hygienic table” and to avoid all other foods during the study.

The volunteers were completely aware that they were consuming potential toxins, but

were regularly monitored by physicians. Wiley finally terminated the experiments when

volunteers began suffering from debilitating symptoms, such as exhaustion, nausea,

and vomiting. Although no formal long-term follow-up studies were conducted on their

health, anecdotal reports suggested that no one was permanently harmed. For

instance, one of Wiley’s subjects, William Robinson, died in 1979 at the age of 94.

As you might imagine, this experiment was controversial and highly publicized. Food

industry leaders objected that the normal consumer would never eat enough

preservatives to suffer the same symptoms, and that the additives were safe in small

quantities. Wiley argued that no one had yet scientifically set toxic limits for chemical

preservatives and, therefore, it remains plausible that a gradual accumulation of

additives might pose a threat to public health over time.

Wiley was convinced that federal regulations were necessary to discriminate between

those chemicals that could safely be added to foods, and those that posed risks to

human health, and should therefore be either banned or labelled explicitly with a

warning. Although food lobbies continued to block legislation, the vast majority of
manufacturers voluntarily stopped using preservatives that made the Poison Squad ill,

including borax, salicylic acid, formaldehyde, and copper sulfate.

The Pure Food & Drug Act

The Poison Squad was a national sensation and drew attention to the need for federal

food and drug laws. To keep the momentum going, Wiley travelled across the country,

speaking before dozens of women’s groups, who took up the issue. More than a million
women wrote to the White House in support of new legislation, while Ladies Home

Journal, one of the most popular magazines of the time, warned mothers of the dangers

adulterated foods posed to their children.

At the same time, Upton Sinclair had published his sensational novel, The Jungle, about

horrific working conditions and contaminated meat in Chicago’s meatpacking district.

President Teddy Roosevelt launched an investigation that proved Sinclair’s claims were

true, causing his administration to back a pure food bill.

One episode in particular galvanized Roosevelt’s commitment to progressive reform.

During the Spanish-American War, he served as a combat officer in command of the

famous Rough Riders, who seized Cuba from the Spanish in 1898. While occupying the

island, the army lived on thousands of pounds of canned meat shipped from producers

in the U.S. To their horror, the meat was spoiled, yet before the problem was

discovered, thousands of American troops fell sick, while hundreds died. In fact, this

foodborne illness outbreak killed more American soldiers than those who died in battle.
 

The incident enraged Roosevelt. He came to believe that the federal government had

placed too much emphasis on laissez faire policies and not enough emphasis on

providing basic protections for the American people. Soon, he partnered with Wiley,

who helped draft a new food and drug bill that eventually found its way to the Senate for

a vote.

In the meantime, Wiley met personally with packing and canning industry lobbyists,

assuring them that the law would not harm manufacturers engaged in honest production

and labeling. Contrary to prevailing assumptions that corporations monolithically

opposed reform, many food companies, such as Heinz, which differentiated itself in the

marketplace using ads stressing the purity of its products, considered federal regulation

as a beneficial measure.

These companies had much higher standards of sanitation than their competitors, which

puts them at a disadvantage when competing with unscrupulous market rivals who

could sell inferior products at a lower price. Government regulation of food production

would reward corporations that already had high standards because it would force the

competition to implement expensive improvements in sanitation.

 
 Political cartoon of Bureau of Chemistry Chief Chemist Harvey Wiley. Source:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fdaphotos/4901387486/in/set-72157624615595535/

Finally, the battle was won on June 30, 1906, when President Roosevelt signed the

legislation. A national hero, Wiley was nicknamed the "Father of the Pure Food and

Drug Act" when it became law. For the first time in American history, the federal

government assumed permanent and widespread responsibility for the health and

safety of the American food supply.

Birth of the FDA

Roosevelt appointed Wiley to oversee the administration of the new law. As the Chief of

the Bureau of Chemistry, one of Wiley’s first innovations was to hire food and drug

inspectors to complement the work of laboratory scientists, thus starting a national food

inspection program that revolutionized both manufacturing and the supply chain.

The fact that enforcement of the Pure Food and Drug Act fell under the jurisdiction of

the Bureau of Chemistry, rather than the Department of Commerce or the Department

of the Interior, was a tribute to Wiley’s reputable studies of food adulteration. Under his

leadership, the Bureau of Chemistry grew significantly in size and in stature, moving into

its own building and adopting the healing symbol of the Rod of Asclepius as its logo.

Eventually, the Bureau evolved into the federal agency we know today as the Food and

Drug Administration (FDA).

 
 The rod of Asclepius. Source: https://mythologian.net/staff-rod-asclepius-medical-

symbol-symbol-medicine-meaning/

Mr. Wiley Goes to Good Housekeeping

Wiley was a maverick in his new role. Unfortunately, he still had many adversaries in

Congress and in the food industry who continued to block his ongoing plans for reform.

Frustrated and disappointed, on March 15, 1912, Wiley resigned his leadership of the
Chemistry Bureau because, from nearly the beginning, he had seen the law’s principles

either compromised or discredited. A newspaper headline of the day read: “Women

Weep as Watchdog of the Kitchen Quits After 29 Years.”

Fortunately, Wiley did not abandon his female constituents. Just prior to resigning, he

had been recruited by Good Housekeeping magazine to direct the Bureau of Foods,

Sanitation, and Health at is well-known Research Institute. Once Wiley was on staff,

working in his own chemistry laboratories in Washington, D.C., he was able to monitor

government activities and continue his fight for pure foods by writing articles and

editorials in the magazine.

In his 19 years as director, Wiley led the fight for tougher government inspection of

meat, pure butter unadulterated with water, and whole wheat flour, which growers were

mixing with other grains. The Bureau also analyzed food products and published the

findings. For instance, in 1914, Wiley published a groundbreaking exposé on obesity

cures, called "Swindled Getting Slim." The article described ways diet hucksters
misleadingly sold fraudulent products by evading government regulators. The Bureau

also established the famous Good Housekeeping "Tested and Approved" seal, a

coveted symbol of good manufacturing practices that raised consumer confidence in the

food industry.

Good Housekeeping Seal. Source: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/about-

the-institute/a22148/about-good-housekeeping-seal/

 
Harvey Wiley’s Legacy

Over his 50-year crusade, Harvey Wiley was an unceasing advocate of food safety

regulations. He traveled the country delivering hundreds of lectures to audiences in

every state. He also toured Europe, where he received many accolades, including the

Legion of Honor from the French government.

In 1921, Wiley's provocative publications contributed to the passage of the Maternity

Bill, which allocated federal funds for improved infant care – and led to a reduction of

the shocking infant mortality rate. Remarkably prescient, in 1927 he expressed his

suspicion that the use of any form of tobacco might be harmful and that it might promote

cancer. Because of mounting evidence confirming Wiley's early warnings, Good

Housekeeping stopped accepting cigarette ads in 1952, twelve years before the U.S.

Surgeon General issued a report detailing the health hazards of smoking.

When he died in 1930, at age 86, Harvey Wiley was given a patriot's funeral at Arlington

Cemetery. His legacy lives on in the careers of his disciples such as Ralph Nader, Bill

Marler, and Michael Jocobson, who have followed in his footsteps and continue to

crusade for safe food today.

Nicolas Appert
Nicolas Appert (17 November 1749 – 1 June 1841) was the French inventor of airtight
food preservation. Appert, known as the "father of canning", was a confectioner.
Nicolas Appert
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Nicolas Appert

Nicolas Appert 1841

Born 17 November 1749

Châlons-sur-Marne, Kingdom of France

Died 1 June 1841 (aged 91)

Massy, July Monarchy

Nationality French

Signature
Nicolas Appert (17 November 1749 – 1 June 1841) was the French inventor of airtight
food preservation. Appert, known as the "father of canning", was a confectioner.[1] Appert
described his invention as a way "of conserving all kinds of food substances in
containers".[2

Biography[edit]
Appert was a confectioner and chef in Paris from 1784 to 1795. In 1795, he began experimenting
with ways to preserve foodstuffs, succeeding with soups, vegetables, juices, dairy products, jellies,
jams, and syrups. He placed the food in glass jars, sealed them with cork and sealing wax and
placed them in boiling water.[3]
In 1800 Napoleon offered a prize of 12,000 francs for a new method to preserve food.[4] In 1806
Appert presented a selection of bottled fruits and vegetables from his manufacture at the Exposition
des produits de l'industrie française, but did not win any reward.[5] In 1810 the Bureau of Arts and
Manufactures of the Ministry of the Interior gave Appert an ex gratia payment of 12,000 francs on
condition that he make his process public. Appert accepted and published a book describing his
process that year.[2] Appert's treatise was entitled L'Art de conserver les substances animales et
végétales (The Art of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances).[4] 200 copies were printed in
1810.[2] This was the first cookbook of its kind on modern food preservation methods.[6]

Appert canning jar

La Maison Appert (English: The House of Appert), in the town of Massy, near Paris, became the first
food bottling factory in the world,[3] years before Louis Pasteur proved that heat killed bacteria. Appert
patented his invention and established a business to preserve a variety of food in sealed bottles.
Appert's method was to fill thick, large-mouthed glass bottles with produce of every description,
ranging from beef, fowl, eggs, milk, and prepared dishes (according to sources[citation needed]). Appert
deliberately avoided using tinplate in his early manufacture because the quality of French tinplate
was poor.[7] His greatest success for publicity was an entire sheep. He left air space at the top of the
bottle, and the cork would then be sealed firmly in the jar by using a vise. The bottle was then
wrapped in canvas to protect it, while it was dunked into boiling water and then boiled for as much
time as Appert deemed appropriate for cooking the contents thoroughly.
In honor of Appert, canning is sometimes called "appertisation", which is distinct from pasteurization.
Appert's early attempts at food preservation by boiling involved cooking the food to a temperature far
in excess of what is used in pasteurization (70 °C (158 °F)), and can destroy some of the flavour of
the preserved food.
Appert's method was so simple and workable that it quickly became widespread. In 1810, British
inventor and merchant Peter Durand patented his own method, but this time in a tin can, so creating
the modern-day process of canning foods. In 1812 Englishmen Bryan Donkin and John Hall
purchased both patents and began producing preserves. Just a decade later, the Appert method of
canning had made its way to America. Tin can mass production was, however, not common until the
beginning of the 20th century, partly because a hammer and chisel were needed to open cans until
the invention of a can opener by an Englishman named Robert Yeates in 1855.[3][8]

Posthumous honors[edit]
In 1991, a monumental statue of Appert, a work in bronze by the artist Jean-Robert Ipousteguy, was
erected in Châlons-en-Champagne. A plaque was affixed to his birthplace in 1986.
In 1999, busts of Appert by Richard Bruyère were erected in Institute of Food Technologists I.F.T.
Chicago (USA), Massy, and Museum of Fine Arts in Châlons-en-Champagne.
In 2010, a statue of Appert by Roger Marion was erected in Malataverne (France).
A room in the Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology of Châlons-en-Champagne was dedicated to
him, (collection Jean Paul Barbier and AINA detail objects on the site of the international association
Nicolas Appert.[9]
There are 72 streets named after Nicolas Appert in France, and one in Canada.
There is a high school named after Nicolas Appert in Orvault, France.
In 1955 a French postal stamp commemorated him.
2010 was declared Nicolas Appert Year, a national celebration, by the French ministry of culture.
The Principality of Monaco issued a postage stamp featuring Appert. An exhibition entitled "Mise en
boîte" was held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Châlons-en-Champagne.

Nicolas Appert Award[edit]

Since 1942, each year the Chicago Section of the Institute of Food Technologists awards
the Nicolas Appert Award, recognizing lifetime achievement in food technology.

Study association[edit]
The student association of the Food Technology education at Wageningen University is
called Nicolas Appert. Since 1972 this association has focused on improving the courses related to
food technology education and organises several events each year for students and alumni.
Currently almost 900 bachelor and master students are members. In 2017 the association
celebrated its 11th lustrum.[10]

Antoine Lavoisier
The concept of metabolism, the transfer of food and oxygen into heat
and water in the body, creating energy, was discovered in 1770 by
Antoine Lavoisier, the “Father of Nutrition and Chemistry.” And in the
early 1800s, the elements of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen,
the main components of food, were isolated and soon connected to

health. Antoine Lavoisier

French chemist

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WRITTEN BY

Arthur L. Donovan

Professor Emeritus of Humanities, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy,

Kings Point, New York. Author of Antoine Lavoisier: Science,
Administration and Revolution and others.

See Article History

Alternative Title: Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

Antoine Lavoisier, in full Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier,

(born August 26, 1743, Paris, France—died May 8, 1794, Paris),
prominent French chemist and leading figure in the 18th-century
chemical revolution who developed an experimentally based theory of
the chemical reactivity of oxygen and coauthored the modern system
for naming chemical substances. Having also served as a leading
financier and public administrator before the French Revolution, he
was executed with other financiers during the revolutionary terror.

TOP QUESTIONS
What are Antoine Lavoisier’s accomplishments?
How was Antoine Lavoisier educated?
Where was Antoine Lavoisier born and raised?
How did Antoine Lavoisier die?
Who was Marie-Anne Lavoisier?

Early Life And Education

Lavoisier was the first child and only son of a wealthy bourgeois family
living in Paris. As a youth he exhibited an unusual studiousness and
concern for the public good. After being introduced to the humanities
and sciences at the prestigious Collège Mazarin, he studied law. Since
the Paris law faculty made few demands on its students, Lavoisier was
able to spend much of his three years as a law student attending public
and private lectures on chemistry and physics and working under the
tutelage of leading naturalists. Upon completing his legal studies,
Lavoisier, like his father and his maternal grandfather before him, was
admitted to the elite Order of Barristers, whose members presented
cases before the High Court (Parlement) of Paris. But rather than
practice law, Lavoisier began pursuing scientific research that in 1768
gained him admission into France’s foremost natural philosophy
society, the Academy of Sciences in Paris.

Pneumatic Chemistry
The chemistry Lavoisier studied as a student was not a subject
particularly noted for conceptual clarity or theoretical rigour.
Although chemical writings contained considerable information about
the substances chemists studied, little agreement existed upon the
precise composition of chemical elements or between explanations of
changes in composition. Many natural philosophers still viewed the
four elements of Greek natural philosophy—earth, air, fire, and water
—as the primary substances of all matter. Chemists like Lavoisier
focused their attention upon analyzing “mixts” (i.e., compounds), such
as the salts formed when acids combine with alkalis. They hoped that
by first identifying the properties of simple substances they would
then be able to construct theories to explain the properties
of compounds.

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It was previously claimed that the elements were distinguishable by

certain physical properties: water and earth were incompressible, air
could be both expanded and compressed, whereas fire could not be
either contained or measured. In the 1720s the English cleric and
natural philosopher Stephen Hales demonstrated that atmospheric air
loses its “spring” (i.e., elasticity) once it becomes “fixed” in solids and
liquids. Perhaps, Hales suggested, air was really just a vapour like
steam, and its spring, rather than being an essential property of the
element, was created by heat. Hales’s experiments were an important
first step in the experimental study of specific airs or gases, a subject
that came to be called pneumatic chemistry.

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In the 1750s the Scottish chemist Joseph Black demonstrated

experimentally that the air fixed in certain reactions is chemically
different from common air. Black wanted to know why slaked
quicklime (hydrated calcium oxide) was neutralized when exposed to
the atmosphere. He found that it absorbed only one component of the
atmosphere, carbon dioxide, which he called “fixed air.” Black’s work
marked the beginning of investigative efforts devoted to identifying
chemically distinct airs, an area of research that grew rapidly during
the latter half of the century. Thus, pneumatic chemistry was a lively
subject at the time Lavoisier became interested in a particular set of
problems that involved air: the linked phenomena of combustion,
respiration, and what 18th-century chemists called calcination (the
change of metals to a powder [calx], such as that obtained by the
rusting of iron).
Conservation Of Mass
The assertion that mass is conserved in chemical reactions was an
assumption of Enlightenment investigators rather than a discovery
revealed by their experiments. Lavoisier believed that matter was
neither created nor destroyed in chemical reactions, and in his
experiments he sought to demonstrate that this belief was not
violated. Still he had difficulty proving that his view was universally
valid. His insistence that chemists accepted this assumption as a law
was part of his larger program for raising chemistry to the
investigative standards and causal explanation found in contemporary
experimental physics. While other chemists were also looking for
conservation principles capable of explaining chemical reactions,
Lavoisier was particularly intent on collecting and weighing all the
substances involved in the reactions he studied. His success in the
many elaborate experiments he conducted was in large part due to his
independent wealth, which enabled him to have expensive apparatus
built to his design, and to his ability to recruit and direct talented
research associates. The fact that French chemistry students are still
taught the conservation of mass as “Lavoisier’s law” is indicative of his
success in making this principle a foundation of modern chemistry.
 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–94) at work in his

laboratory.

© Archivist/Fotolia.com

Antoine Lavoisier
QUICK FACTS
 View Media Page

BORN

August 26, 1743

Paris, France

DIED

May 8, 1794 (aged 50)

Paris, France

SUBJECTS OF STUDY

 chemical element
 chemical compound
 chemical reaction
 combustion
 hydrogen

Phlogiston Theory
After being elected a junior member of the Academy of Sciences,
Lavoisier began searching for a field of research in which he could
distinguish himself. Chemists had long recognized that burning, like
breathing, required air, and they also knew that iron rusts only upon
exposure to air. Noting that burning gives off light and heat, that
warm-blooded animals breathe, and that ores are turned into metals
in a furnace, they concluded that fire was the key causal element
behind these chemical reactions. The Enlightenment German
chemist Georg Ernst Stahl provided a well-regarded explanation of
these phenomena. Stahl hypothesized that a common “fiery
substance” he called phlogiston was released during combustion,
respiration, and calcination, and that it was absorbed when these
processes were reversed. Although plausible, this theory raised a
number of problems for those who wished to explain chemical
reactions in terms of substances that could be isolated and measured.
In the early stages of his research Lavoisier regarded the phlogiston
theory as a useful hypothesis, but he sought ways either to solidify its
firm experimental foundation or to replace it with an experimentally
sound theory of combustion. In the end his theory of oxygenation
replaced the phlogiston hypothesis, but it took Lavoisier many years
and considerable help from others to reach this goal.

Marriage And Administrative

Career
Shortly before entering the Academy of Sciences in 1768, Lavoisier
received a considerable inheritance from his mother’s estate, which he
used to purchase an interest in a financial enterprise known as the
General Farm. The General Farm was a partnership that had a
contract with the royal government to collect certain sales and excise
taxes, such as those on salt and tobacco. At the beginning of each
financial cycle the Tax Farmers lent money to the government and
were subsequently reimbursed through tax collections. Lavoisier spent
considerable time as a Tax Farmer, and he was richly rewarded for his
efforts. Although chemistry was Lavoisier’s passion, throughout his
life he devoted the majority of his time to financial and administrative
affairs.

Three years after joining the General Farm, Lavoisier married Marie
Anne Paulze, the 14-year-old daughter of a member of the Farm with
whom he worked. Although not educated in science, Marie Anne was a
spirited and intelligent young woman who created a place for herself
in a world of science that provided few opportunities for women. As
Marie Anne and Lavoisier had no children, Marie Anne was able to
devote her attentions to helping her husband in his research, and she
soon became widely regarded as a valuable laboratory assistant and
hostess. She mastered English, which Lavoisier never did, and
translated chemical works for him. She employed her drawing talent
to record the research conducted in the laboratory and to prepare
engravings of apparatus for publications. Three years after the
wedding a correspondent sent his regards to Lavoisier’s “philosophical
wife,” and shortly thereafter she was being tutored in chemistry by one
of Lavoisier’s collaborators. In the laboratory she often recorded
results that the experimenters dictated to her, and when Lavoisier
announced his new theories she played an active role in campaigning
for their acceptance.
 Board, Ernest: Lavoisier Explaining to His Wife the Result of His
Experiments on Air

Lavoisier Explaining to His Wife the Result of His Experiments on Air, oil
painting by Ernest Board; in the Wellcome Collection, London.

Wellcome Library, London (CC BY 4.0)

Lavoisier also took on administrative duties within the Academy of

Sciences and in other government agencies during the final years of
the monarchy and the early years of the French Revolution. From 1775
to 1792 he served as a director of the French Gunpowder
Administration and succeeded in making France self-sufficient in this
critical military material. He also conducted extensive experiments on
agricultural production, advised the government on financial affairs
and banking, and served on a commission whose efforts to
unify weights and measures led to the adoption of the metric system.
Lavoisier has rightly gained renown for his scientific achievements,
but his efforts on behalf of France should also be remembered.

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Oxygen Theory Of Combustion

The oxygen theory of combustion resulted from a demanding and
sustained campaign to construct an experimentally grounded chemical
theory of combustion, respiration, and calcination. The theory that
emerged was in many respects a mirror image of
the phlogiston theory, but gaining evidence to support the new theory
involved more than merely demonstrating the errors and inadequacies
of the previous theory. From the early 1770s until 1785, when the last
important pieces of the theory fell into place, Lavoisier and his
collaborators performed a wide range of experiments designed to
advance many points on their research frontier.
 Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier at a distillation furnace in his laboratory. A

guillotine looms through the open door, a reminder that he was
executed during the French Revolution.

© Photos.com/Thinkstock
BRITANNICA QUIZ

Know Your Chemistry Quiz

 Soldering wire, widely employed in connecting electrical leads, is almost always

made of which pair of metals?

Lavoisier’s research in the early 1770s focused upon weight gains and
losses in calcination. It was known that when metals slowly changed
into powders (calxes), as was observed in the rusting of iron, the calx
actually weighed more than the original metal, whereas when the calx
was “reduced” to a metal, a loss of weight occurred. The phlogiston
theory did not account for these weight changes, for fire itself could
not be isolated and weighed. Lavoisier hypothesized that it was
probably the fixation and release of air, rather than fire, that caused
the observed gains and losses in weight. This idea set the course of his
research for the next decade.

Along the way, he encountered related phenomena that had to be

explained. Mineral acids, for instance, were made by roasting a
mineral such as sulfur in fire and then mixing the resultant calx
with water. Lavoisier had initially conjectured that the sulfur
combined with air in the fire and that the air was the cause of acidity.
However, it was not at all obvious just what kind of air made sulfur
acidic. The problem was further complicated by
the concurrent discovery of new kinds of airs within the atmosphere.
British pneumatic chemists made most of these discoveries,
with Joseph Priestley leading the effort. And it was Priestley, despite
his unrelenting adherence to the phlogiston theory, who ultimately
helped Lavoisier unravel the mystery of oxygen. Priestley isolated
oxygen in August 1774 after recognizing several properties that
distinguished it from atmospheric air. In Paris at the same time,
Lavoisier and his colleagues were experimenting with a set of reactions
identical to those that Priestley was studying, but they failed to notice
the novel properties of the air they collected. Priestley visited Paris
later that year and at a dinner held in his honour at the Academy of
Sciences informed his French colleagues about the properties of this
new air. Lavoisier, who was familiar with Priestley’s research and held
him in high regard, hurried back to his laboratory, repeated the
experiment, and found that it produced precisely the kind of air he
needed to complete his theory. He called the gas that was
produced oxygen, the generator of acids. Isolating oxygen allowed him
to explain both the quantitative and qualitative changes that occurred
in combustion, respiration, and calcination.

The Chemical Revolution

In the canonical history of chemistry Lavoisier is celebrated as the
leader of the 18th-century chemical revolution and consequently one
of the founders of modern chemistry. Lavoisier was indeed
an indefatigable and skillful investigator; however, his experiments
emphasized quantification and demonstration rather than yielding
critical discoveries. Such an emphasis suited his determination to
elevate chemistry to the level of a rigorous science. Unlike Priestley, he
was not a person whom someone of modest self-esteem was likely to
find attractive. Wealthy, high-minded, and enormously ambitious,
Lavoisier was rationality and purposefulness personified. While his
scientific achievements are indisputably of the first rank, his defining
achievement was what might be called legislating for science. He led
by example as well as precept, and those who worked with him revered
him. But many who did not share his vision of chemistry and the
chemical revolution he championed found his manner arrogant and
his prescriptive claims unpersuasive.

Lavoisier was fortunate in having made his contributions to the

chemical revolution before the disruptions of political revolution. By
1785 his new theory of combustion was gaining support, and the
campaign to reconstruct chemistry according to its precepts began.
One tactic to enhance the wide acceptance of his new theory was to
propose a related method of naming chemical substances. In 1787
Lavoisier and three prominent colleagues published a
new nomenclature of chemistry, and it was soon widely accepted,
thanks largely to Lavoisier’s eminence and the cultural authority of
Paris and the Academy of Sciences. Its fundamentals remain the
method of chemical nomenclature in use today. Two years later
Lavoisier published a programmatic Traité élémentaire de
chimie (Elementary Treatise on Chemistry) that described the precise
methods chemists should employ when investigating, organizing, and
explaining their subjects. It was a worthy culmination of a determined
and largely successful program to reinvent chemistry as a modern
science.

The French Revolution And

Lavoisier’s Execution
When the French Revolution began in 1789, Lavoisier, like many other
philosophically minded administrators, saw it as an opportunity to
rationalize and improve the nation’s politics and economy. Such
optimism was soon tempered, however, by upheavals that put the very
existence of the state at risk. Lavoisier, perhaps overvaluing the
authority of science and the power of reason, continued to advise
revolutionary governments on finance and other matters, and neither
he nor his wife fled abroad when popular anger turned against those
who had exercised power and enjoyed social privileges in the old
regime. As the revolution became increasingly radical and those in
command were driven to ruling by terror, Lavoisier continued to argue
that the Academy of Sciences should be saved because its members
were loyal and indispensable servants of the state. This rear-guard
action was unsuccessful, and he soon found himself imprisoned along
with other members of the General Farm. The Republic was being
purged of its royalist past. In May 1794 Lavoisier, his father-in-law,
and 26 other Tax Farmers were guillotined. Acknowledging Lavoisier’s
scientific stature, his contemporary, Joseph-Louis Lagrange,
commented, “It took them only an instant to cut off that head, and a
hundred years may not produce another like it.”