FOCUS: REGULATIONS
By Marc C. Sanchez
Understanding the
Ancestry of the Food
Safety Modernization
Act
As I sit at the keyboard, I’m exchanging keystrokes for bites of ice cream. I take for granted that I live in a time when I
can turn to the container and read what
ingredients are in my ice cream. Not
only do I have a label to read, but also
The 1880s brought the genesis of
change to food production. In New York
City, women’s groups protested the conditions of slaughterhouses. They also
protested against the adulteration of
processed foods, which is the cheapening of products through the addition of
inferior ingredients. At that time, producers used inks, dust, lead and other
additives. In 1883, Harvey Wiley, M.D.,
chief chemist for the Bureau of Chemistry at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), began researching the use
of untested chemicals as food preservatives. His research formed the basic elements of current food laws and
regulations: regulation, testing and disclosure.
This is also the time of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. His graphic descriptions of the poor hygiene and
deplorable conditions in meatpacking
plants drew national attention when it
was published in 1906. Sinclair’s book
also led to an outcry from foreign governments, demanding foods imported
from the U.S. be pure and wholesome.
significant confidence that the food I’m eating is safe. It was only a little over 100 years ago that consumers didn’t enjoy that luxury. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution, food production was the wild
frontier—a lawless range where unsanitary conditions combined with
harmful additives and deceptive labeling.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working quickly to implement
the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) signed into law in January 2011. The
FMSA is hailed as the biggest change to the nation’s food production system in 50
years. To understand how FSMA has changed the food production landscape—and
the shortcomings left by the act—it’s important to understand its place in history.
In the Beginning: Processed Foods with No Regulation
The U.S.’s experiment with food regulation grew out of the Industrial Revolution. It was then that food left the farm for the processing plant. Absent any regulations, manufacturers were free to add whatever they liked to their products. Not
only could they add whatever they liked, but no labeling law required them to report it on the product’s label. Horrible stories emerged of lead salts being added to
candies and cheeses, textile inks used as coloring agents and other additives unthinkable today.1
President Roosevelt and the
First Federal Regulation
President Theodore Roosevelt acted
with Congress to pass two pieces of legislation in 1906. The first was the Pure
Food and Drug Act, and the other was
the Meat Inspection Act. The passage of
these two stand-alone bills marks the
birth of the bifurcation of food monitoring and safety.
The Pure Food and Drug Act prohibited adulterated food, drink and drugs in
interstate commerce. The law was enforced by Wiley’s Bureau of Chemistry,
which in later years would become the
Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration in 1927 and eventually in 1931, the
name was shortened to the FDA. The
Bureau of Chemistry exercised authority
to regulate the misbranding and adulteration of food, drink and drugs other
than meat and poultry.
The Meat Inspection Act was passed
on the same day as the Pure Food and
Drug Act. The Meat Inspection Act pro-
