Influences on National Food Safety Policy
Public Pressure for Regulation and Reform
Exposures of the flaws of the regulatory system, whether it was through illnesses or public media, often increased public awareness of the state of the food supply. This increased awareness in turn led to increases in public interest and activism in forming new food safety statutes.
In the latter part of the 19th century to the early 20th century, many Americans were exposed to adulterated foods, dangerous medications, and poisonous substances on a regular basis. Examples are numerous, and while many of the adulterants were harmless, some were poisonous, causing illness or death in those who consumed them. One of the most notorious examples was the use of poisonous lead, copper, or mercury salts to create brightly colored candies that were appealing to children (Janssen 1981). There have since been numerous cases of food-borne disease outbreaks, and many have been used as an opportunity to address weaknesses in the regulatory system.
Muckraking journalists played an extensive role in exposing conditions in food industries and the dangers of food products. One of the most famous examples is the 1905 publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, which exposed insanitary conditions in the Chicago Meat Packing industry. The book ignited such public outrage that President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned the Neill-Reynolds report. In response to both The Jungle and the Neill-Reynolds report, Congress passed the Federal Meat Inspection Act in June 1906 (Carpenter and Sin 2007; Pickavance 2003). In 1933 100,000,000 Guinea Pigs: Dangers in Everyday Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics, another book detailing the lack of regulation of quality in food and drug industries, was published, again causing a public outcry over the condition of the food supply and helping to ensure the passage of the 1938 FD&C Act (Roberts 2001). FDA also engaged in a form of muckraking when it lobbied for the 1938 FD&C Act. FDA conducted indirect publicity campaigns to various media, showcasing the hazards of adulterated food and medicines by distributing pamphlets and making radio talks (Carpenter and Sin 2007). FDA also organized an exhibit, known as “The American Chamber of Horrors,” which displayed various food, drug, and cosmetic items that exemplified that adulteration that was legal and common in the nation marketplace under the 1906 Act (Swann). Other media, including newspapers, radio, and television, also affected public awareness and response to food safety regulation. While federal agencies monitored the food supply, it was through these outlets that the public learned about various food issues.
Industrial and Technological Advancements
Industry leaders in food production, processing, and distribution often had much at stake when food regulatory legislation was being considered. Failures of food safety could be costly: sellers of food that was labeled as “unsafe” faced public relations risks that could ruin their business. Consumers were also ready to shun entire categories of food when just one product was deemed dangerous (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council 1998). Advancements in food technology allowed not only more accurate inspections of foods, but also for more undetectable methods of adulteration. Laws therefore were partially passed as reactions to these advancements—new safety technologies were incorporated, while new production technologies were addressed, to protect both producer and consumer from adulterated items.
During the later part of the nineteenth century, advances in analytical chemistry provided food producers with more efficient ways to adulterate food, thanks to improved scientific knowledge about food composition. However, these improvements in analytical chemistry also made it possible to reveal food adulteration that would have been undetectable (Jackson 2009). During this time, bacteriology proved that microbes caused diseases, and concerns about microorganisms and their affect on food safety increased (Meadows 2006).
After the publication of Sinclair’s The Jungle, meat packers were facing ruin, with meat sales declining by half prior to the 1906 FMIA (Roberts 2001). Sellers of legitimate goods could not maintain their consumers’ trust after their trade had been undermined by the publicized fraudulent practices of their competitors. In order to re-establish consumers’ trust in their product, producers believed they needed to follow established regulatory standards (Wood 1985). Conversely, sellers of adulterated goods were often against new regulatory legislation because they feared it would shut down their businesses (High and Coppin 1988).
The 1940s and 1950s saw great developments in the proliferation of food chemicals and new food processes and advances in the field of toxicology. During this time, the presence of undesirable byproducts of industrialization in food became a public and regulatory concern. It became apparent that the traditional short-term toxicity tests for assessing the dangers of food chemicals did not accurately assess the long-term dangers of ingredients and contaminants (Jackson 2009). Changes in the FD&C Act that occurred during this time included the Miller Pesticide Amendment, the Food Additives Amendment, and the Color Additive Amendment.
