USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act was FDA’s founding statute that was created in response to scandals in the meat-packing industry that were widely exposed in Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle.

Detailed explanation-2: -When Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle revealed food adulteration and unsanitary practices in meat production, public outrage prompted Congress to establish federal responsibility for public health and welfare.

Detailed explanation-3: -Journalist Upton Sinclair exposed the unsanitary conditions of the stockyards, slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants in his novel “The Jungle.” As a result, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Pure Food and Drug Act, requiring food inspection and labeling.

Detailed explanation-4: -The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was first created to enforce the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. In this capacity, the FDA is charged with protecting the health of the US public, to ensure the quality of its food, medicine, and cosmetics.

Detailed explanation-5: -On this date, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 (PL 59-384) passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, 240 to 17. Muckraking journalists had long reported on the appallingly unsanitary conditions of the country’s manufacturing plants, especially those in Chicago’s meat-packing industry.