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FDA STARTED under USDA in 1906 with the advocacy of Dr. Harvey Wiley, and was originally called the Bureau of Chemistry and the scope expanded with the -

Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906

after the nightmare described in Upton Sinclair' famous 1905 book - "The Jungle".

It was updated multiple times since including -

Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938

with the proliferation of schlock medicines.

More "Amendments" were passed to include cosmetics and medical devices as well as veterinary medicine and later tobacco.

There is an overlap of responsibility between over a dozen agencies that is described very clearly here -



(missing from the above is that FDA DOES test milk, some "meat" - i.e., what is dubbed "veal on the hoof" (basically young calves) and some alcohol - i.e., anything less that 5%, e.g., wines and beer, where ATF does higher proofs, some tobacco, and the creation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission that had some of the workload spun off from FDA (et. al) -

S.3419 - Consumer Product Safety Act

For example, FDA used to test items like toys and pajamas for flammability. However FDA does still test microwave ovens (for radiation leaks).

The latest major legislation came about 15 years ago with FSMA -

H.R.2751 - FDA Food Safety Modernization Act

FDA was moved to a new "HEW" (Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) in 1953 with PHS (Public Health Service).

As a note, the appropriations for FDA do NOT fall under HHS but under Agriculture (which includes USDA, et al).

A good way to separate out the functions is that FDA generally does "processed foods" and USDA's FSIS does "raw/unprocessed" foods.



As another note - FDA is a "regulatory" agency, NOT an "enforcement" agency. As a result, Congress created ENFORCEMENT agencies like DEA and ATF to do mostly LEO functions related to drugs (illicit) & alcohol. ATF was mostly a "taxing" authority under Treasury, something that got spun off from what were the remnants of the old "pro-hee' days (the precursor to the current FBI) during Prohibition with -

H.R.17735 - Gun Control Act of 1968

Recently, FDA took on (after fits and starts) the regulation of Tobacco products (although not the unprocessed form) -

H.R.1256 - To protect the public health by providing the Food and Drug Administration with certain authority to regulate tobacco products, to amend title 5, United States Code, to make certain modifications in the Thrift Savings Plan, the Civil Service Retirement System, and the Federal Employees' Retirement System, and for other purposes.



IMHO, one needs to know the history of all of these agencies and how they got here (and why) before wholesale scuttling them. It's just reinventing a wheel that has been cobbled together for well over a century.