Pros And Cons Of The FDA

Have you ever been in the grocery store and picked up a item and saw in the bottom corner, "FDA approved"? What is the FDA? Why do they approve stuff? Most importantly Why do they approve food?

The Food and Drug Administration or for short, the FDA, is a federal agency of the united states department of Health and Human services, one of the United States federal executive departments. The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for protecting the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices. They also ensure the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.

The FDA was founded by Theodore Roosevelt and Harvey Washington

Wiley. Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States and Harvey Washington Wiley was an american chemist and a pioneering activist in the field of food safety. The FDA didn't just start out of anywhere to every action there is a reaction and that was The Pure Food and Drug Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act was the first of series of consumer protection laws, this led to the creation of the FDA. It's main purpose was to ban the foreign and interstate traffic of mislabeled food and drug products. Harvey Washington Wiley was often called "The father of the FDA" and he was the first commissioner Of the FDA but before that he was fighting to get The Pure Food and Drug Act established. All through the 1800's and 1890's pure food bills were introduced into congress but all were put down. To bring his cause public, Harvey formed the Poison Squad, who tested the chemicals and adulterated foods on themselves. Just like that The Pure Food and Drug act was introduced, the House and Senate both endorsed a joint conference committee report favoring the bill. The House vote was 240-17. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the landmark Progressive Era legislation into law on June 30.

"The FDA has many roles and Responsibilities, they have a responsibility to protect the public health. The FDA also has responsibility for regulating the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products to protect the public health and to reduce tobacco use by young people, The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medical products more safer, and more affordable and by helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medical products and foods to maintain and improve their health, they also plays a significant role in the Nation's counter terrorism capability. They fulfill this responsibility by ensuring the security of the food supply and by fostering development of medical products to respond to deliberate and naturally emerging public health threats." - Taken from the FDA website.

The FDA's organization is very simple, they have The Office of Commissioners and four directorates overseeing the main functions of the agency which are: Medical Products and Tobacco, Foods, Global Regulatory Operations and Policy, and Operations. Those agencies also have roles and responsibilities, for example of office of the Medical Products and Tobacco provides advice and counsel to the Commissioner on all medical product and tobacco-related programs and issues.

One of the reasons that you see labeling on food is due to the FDA, they are responsible for for assuring that foods sold in the United States are safe, wholesome and properly labeled. This applies to foods produced in the U.S, as well as foods from foreign countries. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) and the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act are the Federal laws governing food products under FDA's jurisdiction.

Long story short, the FDA is an agency who responsibility is to ensure the public's health and why do they do it? Because just like every other agency in the United States executive departments or just in general they have a purpose and i think they're doing a great job of it.