Chemicals

The 20th century witnesses a remarkable revolution in food production. Food processing preservation, packaging, and distribution all transformed. Although the local food movement is in many ways a reaction against these developments, the ability to preserve and transport food across enormous distances greatly changed not just the way we eat, but what we eat. One of the key facilitators of these shifts was new chemicals, ingredients and processing agents. Many of these were introduced into the food supply after World War II in the middle of the century. Although FDA did not require any advance approval for the use of food chemical technologies, both the public and Congress began growing increasingly concerned about the safety of hard-to-pronounce and largely unknown ingredients in food. Representative James Delaney of New York chaired a well-known select committee to examine their escalated use of chemicals in food. After extensive hearings, Congress eventually enacted the Food Pesticide Amendment (1954), Food Additive Amendment (1958), and the Color Additives Amendment (1960). Together, these measures increased FDA control over the ever-growing list of chemicals in food. Perhaps most famous of all these measures is what is known as the Delaney Clause, Food Additives Amendment of 1958, 72 Stat. 1784, 1785 (1958), codified at 21 U.S.C. 348(c) (3). The Delaney Clause provides that “no additive shall be deemed to be safe if it is found to induce cancer when ingested by man or animal, or if it is found, after tests which are appropriate for the evaluation of the safety of food additives, to induce cancer in man or animal.” This next case considers the meaning of the Delaney Clause.