Pure Food and Drug Act

Acts, Bills, and Laws, 1906 - The Theodore Roosevelt Administration

The muckrakers had successfully heightened public awareness of safety issues stemming from careless food preparation procedures and the increasing incidence of drug addiction from patent medicines, both accidental and conscious. Scientific support came from Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, the Department of Agriculture's chief chemist, who published his findings on the widespread use of harmful preservatives in the meat-packing industry. The experience of American soldiers with so-called “embalmed beef” during the Spanish-American War added impetus to the movement.

Public pressure forced a reluctant Congress to consider a Pure Food and Drug bill in 1906. Provisions of the measure included the following:

• Creation of the Food and Drug Administration, which was entrusted with the responsibility of testing all foods and drugs destined for human consumption
• The requirement for prescriptions from licensed physicians before a patient could purchase certain drugs
• The requirement of label warnings on habit-forming drugs.

Passage of the measure in Congress was not assured. The lobbying association representing the medicine makers was vocal and well-funded, as were representatives of the “beef trust” and other food producers. Some members of Congress, especially a number of Southern senators, opposed the bill as constitutionally unsound.

The active involvement of Theodore Roosevelt, who was repulsed by slaughterhouse practices described in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, successfully overcame the lawmakers’ reluctance.

The first casualty of this legislation was the patent medicine industry; few of the nostrums gained certification from the FDA. The law was strengthened in 1911 when additional provisions were added to combat fraudulent labeling.

Companion legislation was directed squarely at the meat-packing industry in the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.

See other Theodore Roosevelt domestic legislation.