Adulteration
Adulteration
Adulteration, act of making any commodity impure by admixture of other or baser ingredients. This admixture may corrupt the nature of the original to the extent of destroying its identity, or it may merely lower the value or effectiveness of the finished product. Adulteration of foods and beverages has been performed with the same aim-increasing profits for the manufacturer or merchant-since early times, when laws in ancient Greece and Rome addressed the coloring and flavoring of wine. England has had laws against adulteration of beer, bread, and other commodities since the 13th century, culminating in the Adulteration of Food or Drink Act of 1872 with its stiff penalties-six months at hard labor for a second offense. The law was modernized with the 1955 Food and Drug Act.
In the U.S. numerous state and federal bills were introduced in the 1890s, finally resulting in the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906. This act was ineffective because of its light penalties, and in 1938 it was superseded by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which outlaws foods and drugs dangerous to health that are sold in interstate commerce. The 1938 law has been amended to cover food colorings and additives and supplemented by similar state legislation aimed at foods and drugs that do not come within the scope of interstate commerce.
Adulteration not only functions to defraud consumers but it can also pose a health threat. In the case of illegal drugs sold on the street, adulteration is generally in the form of inert or harmless compounds, but deadly poisons, such as sodium cyanide, have sometimes been sold as heroin. Adulteration is not the only source of poor-quality or dangerous foods and drugs: The ingredients of junk foods need not be adulterated to ensure a virtual absence of nutritional value; potentially hazardous medicines will have more adverse effects if unadulterated. The consumer movement of recent times has focused not only on adulteration, but also on the nature of various unadulterated ingredients. (1)
Adulteration
Resources
See Also
- Food and Drug Administration
- Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
- Foreign substance
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