Truth in Labeling

AMERICANS DEPEND on the national government to protect them from all kinds of potentially damaging substances and devices, and one way that the U.S. Congress has dealt with this issue has been to pass a series of acts mandating truth in labeling in everything from food to drugs to cosmetics to nutritional supplements to medical devices to music to movies to books to toys to blood to electrical appliances to automobiles to industrial hazards.

The history of labeling in the United States began early in the 20th century, when, in 1907 Congress passed the Federal Food and Drug Act and gave the Bureau of Chemistry, later known as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the responsibility for ensuring that food products were clean and free of ...