APPENDIX. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF FOOD AND DRUGS ACT. · An 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. (Food and Drugs Act.) Act of June 30, 1906, c. 3915, 34 Stat. 768. (Fifty-ninth Congress, first session, S. 88.) Volume 40, Congressional Record: Part 1 Page.1 140 382 892, 894-898 1129-1135, 1173, Introduced and referred to Committee on Manufactures. Part 2 Debated in Senate___ Part 3 1216-1221, 1414-1417, 1754-1755, 1868, 1923 Reported back with amendments (H. Reßt. No. 2118)- Committee on Rules submits a privileged report.. 8910-8915 Consent to print opinion of attorney general of the State of New Conference report (H. Rept. No. 5056) made and submitted in 9379-9381 Conference report made and submitted in House. 9417 9459 Second conference report (H. Rept. No. 5096) made, debated, 9472-9474, 9495, 9496, 9655 Second conference report (H. Rept. No. 5096) made, debated, 9735-9740 Reports: Senate report No. 8, 59th Cong., 1st session. House report No. 2118, 59th Cong., 1st session, p. 807, post. House report No. 2118, part 2. (Minority report.) House report No. 5096, 59th Cong., 1st session. 1 Page numbers refer to bound volumes of Congressional Record. PURE FOOD.1 The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bills, H. R. 4527, 7018, 12071, 13859, and S. 88, beg leave to report and recommend that the said House bills be laid on the table. H. R. 4527 is the bill known as the "Hepburn pure-food bill," and is similar to the bill which was reported to the House on January 18, 1904, and which was passed by the House. Your committee has perfected the Hepburn bill by various amendments and recommends that Senate bill 88 be amended by striking out all after the enacting clause and substituting the Hepburn bill as perfected by the committee. The perfected Hepburn bill, offered as a substitute for the Senate bill, is set forth in full at the end of this report. The bill as recommended for passage proposes to regulate to a certain extent the traffic in drugs and foods in the District of Columbia, in the Territories, and insular possessions, also when imported into the United States or intended for export, and in interstate commerce, under rules and regulations to be made in accordance with the provisions of the bill by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. It forbids the importation, or the shipment from one State to another, or the offering for sale in the District of Columbia and the Territories of articles declared by the act to be adulterated or misbranded. DEFINITIONS. It defines the term "drug" as including all medicines and preparations recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary for internal or external use and any substance or mixture of substances intended to be used for the cure, mitigation, or prevention of disease of either inan or animal. It defines the term "food" as including all articles used for food, drink, confectionery, or condiment by man or animal. ADULTERATIONS. It describes what shall be considered under the provisions of the act as adulterations, traffic in which is regulated or forbidden by the act. ADULTERATION IN drugs. It prescribes that a drug shall be considered as adulterated if when sold under the standard recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary it differs from the standard of strength, quality, or purity, as laid down therein, or if its strength or purity differ from any other professed standard or quality under which it is sold. ADULTERATION IN CONFECTIONERY. It prescribes that confectionery shall be deemed, adulterated if it contain terra alba, barytes, talc, chrome yellow, or other mineral substance, or poisonous color or flavor, or other ingredient deleterious or detrimental to health. ADULTERATION IN FOOD. It prescribes that food shall be adulterated (including under the term both food, drink, and condiment): First. If any substance has been mixed and packed with it so as to reduce or injuriously affect its quality or strength. Second. If any substance has been substituted wholly or in part. Third. If any valuable constituent has been abstracted wholly or in part. Fourth. If it be mixed, colored, powdered, coated, or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed. Fifth. If it contain any added poisonous or deleterious ingredient which may render such article injurious to health. 1 House of Representatives, report No. 2118. 59th Cong., 1st sess., to accompany S. 88. This is the report of the majority of the committee. The minority report is not included in this compilation. Sixth. If it consists in whole or in part of a filthy, decomposed, or putrid animal or vegetable substance, or any portion of an animal unfit for food, or if it is the product of a diseased animal or one that has died otherwise than by slaughter. MISBRANDED. It provides that articles covered by the act shall be deemed "misbranded" when the package or label shall bear any statement regarding the ingredients which shall be false or misleading in any particular, or which shall falsely state the State, Territory, or country where manufactured or produced. It further provides that a drug shall be deemed "misbranded" if it be an imitation of or offered for sale under the name of another article; or if the contents of the original package shall have been removed in whole or in part and other contents placed in the package; or if it fail to bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of alcohol therein, or of any opium, cocaine, or other poisonous substance therein. It provides that a food (or drink) shall be deemed misbranded: First. If it be an imitation of, or offered for sale under the distinctive name of another article. Second. If it be labeled or branded so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser or falsely purport to be a foreign product. Third. If in package form the quantity of the contents of the package be not plainly and correctly stated in terms of weight or measure on the outside of the package. Fourth. If the package containing it, or its label, shall bear any false or misleading statement, design, or device regarding the ingredients. WHEN NOT ADULTERATED OR MISBRANDED. It is provided, however, that an article of food shall not be considered adul terated or misbranded if it does not contain any added poisonous or deleterious ingredients in the following cases: First. In the case of mixtures or compounds, known as articles of food under their own distinctive names and not an imitation of or offered for sale under the distinctive name of another article, provided the label or brand shall contain a statement where the article has been manufactured or produced. Second. In the case of articles labeled, branded, or tagged, so as to plainly indicate that they are compounds, imitations, or blends. And in this connec tion the bill describes the word "blend" as used therein to mean a mixture of like substances, not excluding harmless coloring or flavoring ingredients. It is further provided that manufacturers of proprietary articles which contain no unwholesome added ingredient shall not be required to disclose their trade formulas except in so far as may be necessary to prevent adulteration or misbranding. PROTECTION FOR RETAIL DEALERS. As the principal purpose of the bill is to prevent interstate and foreign commerce in adulterated or falsely branded articles of food, drink, and medicine, the committee has inserted in the bill a provision intended to protect all persons dealing in the articles subsequent to the manufacturer or importing agent. Section 8 of the bill provides that no dealer shall be convicted when he is able to prove a guaranty of conformity with the provisions of the act signed by the manufacturer or the party from whom he purchased. The section requires that the guarantor shall reside within the United States and that the guaranty shall contain his full name and address. In other sections of the bill there are provisions for collecting samples er specimens and the examination of such in order to determine whether they are adulterated or misbranded, and the bill provides that any party from whom a sample was obtained shall be given an opportunity to be heard before the Secretary of Agriculture shall certify to the United States district attorney the results of an examination of the article as the basis for prosecution; so that if samples of goods shall be taken from a retail or wholesale dealer who has received a guaranty of conformity with the provisions of the act from the person who sold to him, he will be relieved from prosecution, and any penalty which may attach under the act will be directed to the original guarantor. These carefully prepared provisions of the bill will prevent any dealer being put to the expense of a prosecution where he takes the precaution to protect himself by requiring a guaranty. STANDARDS OF FOOD. We realize that it is not possible for Congress to determine the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of each food product, or to fix by legislative act the standard which shall be accepted as complying with well-known names of food articles. We realize that in the end the determination of the standard of a food article under a given name may be one to be settled by the courts. It is, however, essential to the success and operation of any pure-food measure that standards of food products shall be arrived at for the guidance of the officials charged with the administration of the law and often for the information of the courts. One of the principal objects of a national pure-food law is to obtain uniformity of food standards among the States, which are supreme within their own borders. The intention of the makers of the Constitution and the founders of the Republic that commerce between the States should be free and unhampered has been largely nullified as to food products by the varying requirements as to standards and labels in different States. In one State one standard may be required for a named article and in the adjoining State a different standard fixed; and where the same standard is agreed upon in a group of States for precisely the same article different labels may be required in each of them, so that the producer or manufacturer is compelled to not only have complete knowledge of the various State laws, but under penalty is required to carefully see to it that a package of goods intended to meet the requirements of one State shall not by error be sent into another State. This has a tendency to prevent the development of small jobbing and wholesale cities, because the small jobber perhaps can not well afford to carry in stock what in fact is the same article properly labeled for a number of different States surrounding him. It is therefore provided in the bill that the Secretary of Agriculture shall fix the standard of food products when advisable, and that to aid him in reaching just decisions he is authorized to call upon the committee on food standards of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists and the committee of standards of the Association of State Dairy and Food Departments, and such other experts as he may deem necessary. PRESERVATIVES. The use of preservatives in some form and to some extent has become wellnigh universal in our country as to certain classes of food products. It is contended by some that preservatives are injurious and unwholesome; by others that in small quantities they are harmless and necessary for proper preparation of food articles. It is contended by some that a preservative, when introduced into the human system, requires an extra and unusual amount of work on the part of the organs of the body to get rid of it, and that though a preservative in very small quantities may seem harmless, that, in fact, to the extent to which it exists, it is to a degree injurious to the system in the long run. It is, of course, admitted that food must be preserved in some manner, and it is generally admitted that if food can not be preserved in any other manner than by the addition of small quantities of preservatives, such as boric acid, salicylic acid, benzoic acid, or similar substances, that it is better for mankind to suffer the injury caused by the preservative rather than to do without food which has been kept for a time. Some claim that food can be preserved in sufficient quantities and for a sufficient length of time without the use of these artificial preservatives. Others claim that these preservatives are essential to the manufacture, keeping, and use of many articles of food. The question is one of tremendous importance. On the one hand, it affects the health of the whole community: on the other hand, it may determine the continuance of great business enterprises. No one desires to injuriously affect the health of the community in order to benefit a manufacturing interest, and no one desires to injure the manufacturing interest by forbidding the use of a preservative unless that preservative, in the amount used, is in fact injurious to the public health. Your committee has not undertaken to determine the wholesomeness of preservatives. By the bill it is provided that before the Secretary of Agriculture shall make decision concerning the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of a preservative or other substance which may be added to foods, any person interested may ask for the appointment of a special board for the purpose of considering the matter and advising the Secretary of Agriculture. It is provided that this board shall consist of 1 toxicologist, 1 physiological chemist, 1 bacteriologist, 1 pathologist, and 1 pharmacologist. POLICE POWERS OF THE STATE NOT INTERFERED WITH. It is expressly provided by the bill that it shall not be construed to interfere with commerce wholly internal in any State nor with the exercise of the police powers of the States, but foods and drugs fully complying with all the provisions of the act shall not be interfered with by the State authorities when brought from another State so long as they remain in original unbroken packages, except as may be otherwise defined by law or provided by the statutes of the United States. NECESSITY FOR NATIONAL PURE-FOOD LAW.. The necessity for pure-food laws is apparent to everyone. Many of the States have endeavered to meet this necessity, so far as they can, within their own respective borders, but the several States have proven unable to fully deal with the matter when affected by interstate commerce in adulterated and misbranded articles. It is essential that there be some national legislation as an aid to State legislation against impure foods and drugs. Then, again, the laws and regulations of the different States are diverse, confusing, and often contradictory. What one State now requires the adjoining State may forbid. Our food products are not raised principally in the States of their consumption. State boundary lines are unknown in our commerce, except by reason of local regulations and laws, such as State pure-food laws. It is desirable, as far as possible, that the commerce between the States be unhindered. One of the hoped-for good results of a national law on the subject of pure foods is the bringing about of a uniformity of laws and regulations on the part of the States within their own several borders. It is believed that the fixing of food standards through the aid, in part, of the State food officials in collaboration with the Agricultural Department will have the happy result of final uniform food standards and regulations in the different States. VARIOUS BILLS INTRODUCED IN CONGRESS. Legislation regarding interstate commerce in foods has been constantly before the Congress of the United States for about eighteen years. Senate bill No. 3991, introduced June 3, 1890, by Mr. Paddock, passed the Senate about fourteen years ago. Since then the following pure-food bills have been introduced in the Senate and the House: |