Which law regulated safety of food and medicine in the early 20th century?

• A. Meat Inspection Act
• B. Food Safety Act
• C. Pure Food and Drug Act
• D. Federal Food and Drug Administration Act

Answer: (C)

During the Progressive Era, concerns about unsafe foods and medicines pushed Congress to act. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 targeted misbranding and adulteration of foods and medicines shipped across state lines, requiring truthful labeling and prohibiting dangerous additives. It marked the first major federal effort to regulate consumer products for safety and laid the groundwork for ongoing oversight by the agency that would become the FDA. The other options fit different, narrower scopes or don’t reflect the era’s primary federal measure: the Meat Inspection Act dealt with meat processing specifically, and terms like a separate Food Safety Act or an FDA Act aren’t the standard early-1900s laws—even though the FDA would later arise from enforcing the Pure Food and Drug Act and a more comprehensive regulation followed in 1938.