Roosevelt Signs Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act

President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act on June 30, 1906, marking a major achievement in federal regulation of the food industry. The legislation arose from public education and exposés by muckraking journalists like Upton Sinclair and Samuel Hopkins Adams, advocacy by social activist Florence Kelley, research by USDA Chief Chemist Harvey Washington Wiley, and Roosevelt’s support. The catalyst was Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” published six months earlier, which exposed stomach-turning conditions in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. After reading the book, Roosevelt ordered full investigations including surprise inspections that, despite advance warning to meat-packers, still revealed revolting conditions.

The Pure Food and Drug Act—also known as the Wiley Act for Harvey Wiley’s advocacy—was the first comprehensive federal consumer protection law and led to creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It banned foreign and interstate traffic in adulterated or mislabeled food and drug products, required active ingredients be labeled on drug packaging, and established purity standards based on the United States Pharmacopeia and National Formulary. The Meat Inspection Act set sanitary standards for meat processing and interstate shipments, and prohibited mislabeling or adulterating meat products. These laws represented genuine Progressive Era reform victories, demonstrating that public outrage combined with investigative journalism and political will could impose constraints on corporate power. However, these regulatory agencies would eventually become targets for corporate capture—a process that would accelerate throughout the twentieth century as industry systematically weakened enforcement, defunded agencies, and installed industry-friendly regulators through the revolving door.