Pure Foods and Drugs Act of 1906

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Pure Foods and Drugs Actof 1906

• Food Law
• FSC-421
• Lawdoc

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Pure Food and Drug 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.
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Pure Foods and Drugs Act of 1906

• Did not apply to intrastate commerce
• Jurisdiction was based on adulterated or
  misbranded articles in interstate commerce
• Dealt with interstate and foreign commerce in
  adulterated or misbranded foods
• Exempted items intended for export that were
  prepared according to foreign manufacturers
  specifications

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Food

• Pure Foods and Drugs Act of 1906 defined food as
• all articles used for food, drink, confectionery
  or condiment by man or other animal, whether
  simple, mixed or compound

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Food Adulterated if

• Any substance mixed with so as to lower or
  injuriously affect its quality
• Any substituted substance wholly or in part
• Any valuable component extracted
• Treated so as to conceal damage or inferiority
• Contains any added ingredient which may render it
  injurious to health
• Any putrid, diseased substance or unfit for food

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Misbranded if

• Imitation offered for sale under name of another
  article
• Falsely labeled so as to confuse or mislead
  purchaser
• Contents in terms of weights and measures not
  plainly or correctly stated on outside of package
• Label contains false or misleading statements or
  design concerning the ingredients of the food

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Remedies

• Seizure
• Under direction of court
• Disposal
• Of adulterated of misbranded articles
• Imprisonment and/or 500 fine
• Violation considered a misdemeanor criminal
  offense
• Stiffer penalties for repeat offenses

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Safe Harbor

• Dealer protected from prosecution under the 1906
  Act if had guarantee signed by supplier/vendor
  /jobber/wholesaler attesting that articles not
  misbranded or adulterated when purchased

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Problems with the First Act

• Food industry resisted passage of the 1906 Act
• Not accustomed to regulation
• Failed to provide clear-cut definitions and
  standards
• Could not determine imitation if no std for the
  original
• Appropriations bills to fund enforcement and to
  establish food standards were not passed
• Expert opinions successfully challenged as
  arbitrary b/c no legal stds

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Problems with the First Act

• no set of authorities can equitably execute a
  food law without a set of standards of purity for
  their guide Harvey Wiley
• Requirement of Intent
• First Act required not only proof of adulteration
  or misbranding, but also Gov had to prove
  offender intended to adulterate or misbrand
• Gov never won a case / defendant plead ignorance

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Problems with the First Act

• Harvey Wiley hell-raising
• Poison squad determined preservatives as a group
  were bad. (Reported in Bulletin 13, Foods and
  Food Adulterants)
• Responsibilities of Secretary of Agriculture not
  clearly stated
• Defenders could argue Secretary exceeding
  authority
• Attention diverted from first Act by WWI

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Amendments to the First Act

• Sherley Amendment (1912)
• Gould Amendment (1913)
• net weights
• Kenyon Amendment (1920)
• wrapped meat in paper in packaged form
• Butter Amendment
• Defined butter (oleomargarine)
• McNary-Mapes Amendment (1930)
• Standards of quality for canned foods (Birdseye)
• Sea Food Inspection Amendments (1934)

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Other factors

• Consumers demonstrating for stricter laws
• Guinea Pigs Kallet Schlink 1933
• Exposed dangers in everyday foods, and drugs
• Similar to Upton Sinclair book
• Same year Roosevelt became President
• Draft of a new bill introduced as the Copeland
  Bill on Jan 4, 1934
• Passed by 75th Congress 1937 and
• Signed by President Roosevelt on June 25, 1938

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Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act 1938

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