The Way We Worked
first cop on the food beat In this circa 1911 photo, Food and Drug Inspector John Earnshaw examines food products in an open air market. Earnshaw was one of the original federal food and drug inspectors hired by the Bureau of Chemistry in the Department of Agriculture following enactment of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act. The inspectors, predecessors to today’s Food and Drug Administration, enforced the new law, which banned food that was “filthy, decomposed or putrid” from interstate commerce. Photo courtesy of Cindy Lachin and Suzanne Junod, U.S. Food and Drug Administration History Office; in collaboration with the Society for History in the Federal Government (SHFG), bringing together government professionals, academics, consultants, students and citizens interested in understanding federal history work and the historical development of the federal government. Website: http://shfg.org/shfg/. 52
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Did you know? The Food and Drug Administration, under the Department of Health and Human Services, today oversees products that account for about 25 percent of every consumer dollar spent, according to www.fda.gov. These include human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.