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Purpose of the Food & Drug Administration

The Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, is chiefly responsible for regulating foods and medicines to ensure their safety. The agency also disseminates information on the safe use of these products. Created in the early 20th century, the FDA is a regulatory agency located within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2009, the FDA's authority expanded to include tobacco products.

  1. Purpose

    • The FDA's main purpose is to protect American consumers from unsafe food, medicines, cosmetics and medical devices.

    Features

    • To fulfill its purpose, the FDA regulates the contents of food products and approves new pharmaceutical drugs after reviewing evidence of their safety. FDA regulatory actions range from controls over a product's marketing and distribution to an outright ban on a product deemed unsafe.

    History

    • The FDA received its modern mandate in the early 20th century when new food safety laws were passed by Congress.

    Considerations

    • Consumers may not always be able to evaluate the safety of food and medicines because of the sheer number of these products, as well as the knowledge often needed to determine their safety. For this reason, Congress delegated regulatory oversight of these products to the FDA.

    Famous Ties

    • In the early 1960s, the FDA denied an application to market Thalidomide in the U.S. Use of the drug in Europe was linked to thousands of serious birth defects.

    Tobacco Regulation

    • In June of 2009, President Barack Obama signed legislation that placed tobacco products under FDA regulation. The FDA last attempted to regulate tobacco as a drug in the 1990s, but a court ruled then that the agency did not have this authority.

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