Word: fda
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...first U.S. Pure Food and Drug Law, passed in 1906, gave, the enforcement authority (now the Food and Drug Administration) no power to rule on the safety of any substance that a food processor proposed to put in his packages. Not until 1958 did Congress give the FDA the power to pass on additives before they went on the market, but by then it had delayed so long that hundreds of additives had been in wide use for many years. So the new law contained a grandfather clause, exempting substances already employed and "generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for their...
...FDA's list of GRAS items classifies hundreds of additives by their principal purposes. Among them are anti-caking agents, which keep such things as salt, sugar and milk powder from clumping; preservatives (31 listed); emulsifying agents, used to help homogenize substances that do not normally mix (like fat in milk); sequestrants, which keep trace minerals from turning fats and oils rancid, and are also used to prevent some soft drinks from turning cloudy. In addition, the FDA has 80 "miscellaneous" GRAS substances from alfalfa to zedoary (an aromatic East Indian herb), from pipsissewa leaves to ylang-ylang, used...
...over a 50-year period, or cause thalidomide-like deformities in the unborn. Although there is only the remotest chance that even a minority might be hazardous, further testing of many additives, by chromatographic techniques that did not exist when the substances were first introduced, is clearly indicated. The FDA has already arranged with the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council to supervise such studies of saccharin...
Crude Guillotine. Cyclamates, given in doses 50 times greater than any likely human consumption, have caused bladder cancer in mice and rats, as well as the birth of deformed chicks. This was duly reported to the FDA by Abbott Laboratories, major producer of cyclamates. Within a week, Secretary Robert Finch of Health, Education and Welfare ordered cyclamates off the market, save for fruit already packed for distribution or foods prescribed for health reasons, for diabetes, say, or obesity...
...salt-to give them maximum nutritive and health-protective values. Just as clearly, the public demands low-calorie sweeteners as well as precooked heat-and-serve meals. It is well within the competence of chemists and manufacturers to meet society's demands safely. At the same time, the FDA needs the unquestioned authority and financial resources to ensure that the world's greatest consuming society can be far better informed-and protected. Last week's reorganization of the FDA, with the prospect of an increased budget, should make that possible...