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        About FDA

FDA History

                        
                Milestones in U.S. Food and Drug Law
          FDA History Office


                Histories of FDA Regulated Products
          FDA Leadership: 1907 to Today
          Changes in Science, Law and Regulatory Authorities
          FDA History Exhibits
          FDA History Research Tools Home
          About FDA
          FDA HistoryAbout FDA FDA History
  	
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    PrintThe Food and Drug Administration is the oldest comprehensive consumer protection agency in the U. S. federal government. Since 1848 the federal government has used chemical analysis to monitor the safety of agricultural products -- a responsibility inherited by the Department of Agriculture in 1862 and later by the FDA.

Although it was not known by its present name until 1930, FDA’s modern regulatory functions began with the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act, a law a quarter-century in the making that prohibited interstate commerce in adulterated and misbranded food and drugs.  Harvey Washington Wiley, Chief Chemist of the USDA Bureau of Chemistry, had been the driving force behind this law and headed its enforcement in the early years, providing basic elements of protection that consumers had never known before that time.

Since then, the FDA has changed along with social, economic, political and legal changes in the United States. Examining the history of these changes illuminates the evolving role that FDA has played in promoting public health and offers lessons to consider as we evaluate current regulatory challenges.
Sub-Topic Paragraphs
          Oral Histories; Research ToolsDr. Francis Kelsey and President Kennedy

                    Oral Histories
            Read first-hand accounts of important agency changes from former FDA employees.
          
          historical photo of a man in a laboratory

                    Research Tools
            Recommendations from the agency’s historians on useful resources for researchers.
          Historical Images; FDA History ExhibitsFood additives cartoon image from the FDA history collection

                    Historical Images
            Search and download over 250 free, non-copyrighted, high resolution digital images on FLICKR.
          
          Inspector George Larrick and the American Chamber of Horrors exhibit

                    FDA History Exhibits
            Explore FDA history through select images, artifacts and vignettes.

                                                                                  Content current as of:
      06/29/2018FDA History                
                          

                        Milestones in U.S. Food and Drug Law
          FDA History Office


                        Histories of FDA Regulated Products
          FDA Leadership: 1907 to Today
          Changes in Science, Law and Regulatory Authorities
          FDA History Exhibits
          FDA History Research Tools
 
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