Pure Food & Drug Act

Definition

The Pure Food and Drug Act, passed in 1906, was a law that prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded food and drugs in interstate commerce.

Related terms

Food Safety Modernization Act: A 2011 law aimed at ensuring the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC): An independent agency of the United States government whose main goal is to enforce civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and promote consumer protection.

Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle": A novel published in 1906 that exposed unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry, leading to public outrage that contributed to the passage of the Pure Food & Drug Act.