Pure Food and Drug Act

Pure Food and Drug Act

Acronyms (colloquial)	PFDA
Enacted by	the 59th United States Congress
Effective	January 1, 1907
Citations
Public law	59-384
Statutes at Large	34 Stat. 768, Chapter 3915
Codification
Acts repealed	Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) 37 U.S. Stat. 416 (1912) (Sherley Amendment) 37 U.S. Stat. 732 (1913) (Gould Amendment) 41 U.S. Stat. 271 (1919) (Kenyon Amendment) 42 U.S. Stat. 1500 (1923) 44 U.S. Stat. 976-1003 (1927) 46 U.S. Stat. 1019 (1930) (McNary-Mapes Amendment) 48 U.S. Stat. 1204 (1934) (21 U.S.C. §§ 1-15)
Titles amended	21 U.S.C.: Food and Drugs
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 88 by Weldon Heyburn (R–ID) on December 14, 1905 Passed the Senate on February 30, 1906 (63-4) Passed the House on June 20, 1906 (143-72) Reported by the joint conference committee on June 23, 1906; agreed to by the House on June 23, 1906 (Did not agree) and by the Senate on June 23, 1906 (241-17) Signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906
Major amendments
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (1938) Food Quality Protection Act (1996)
United States Supreme Court cases
United States v. Johnson (1911)

The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, also known as the Wiley Act and Dr. Wiley's Law, was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws enacted by the United States Congress, and led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Its main purpose was to ban foreign and interstate traffic in adulterated or mislabeled food and drug products, and it directed the US Bureau of Chemistry to inspect products and refer offenders to prosecutors. It required that active ingredients be placed on the label of a drug's packaging and that drugs could not fall below purity levels established by the United States Pharmacopeia or the National Formulary.

In the late 1800s, the quality of food in the US decreased significantly as populations moved to cities and the time from farm to market increased. Many food producers turned to using dangerous preservatives, including formaldehyde, to keep food appearing fresh. Simultaneously, the quality of medicine was appalling. Quack medicine was common, and many drugs were addictive or dangerous without actually providing a curative effect. Opium and alcohol were chief ingredients, even in infant medicines. The work of muckraking journalists exposed the practices of food and drug industries and caused public outcry.

Foremost among such exposés was The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, published the same year as the act. With its graphic and revolting descriptions of unsanitary conditions and unscrupulous practices rampant in the meat-packing industry, it kept the public's attention on the extreme unhygienic conditions in meat processing plants. Sinclair quipped, "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach," as an outraged public demanded government action, resulting in the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906.^[1]