Reference
Timeline: U.S. food safety and food technology, 1906 to the present
Key points
- Food laws and agency rules provide different parts of the regulatory framework.
- The engineered-food record includes approvals and incidents involving unapproved crops.
- Research records identify what was examined and when it was published.
- Agency assessments and court holdings address specific questions.
Food safety policy combines legal authority, scientific assessment, and decisions about particular foods or production practices. A chronology helps distinguish these kinds of change. The Administrative Procedure Act account in Wikipedia describes a framework for agencies to establish regulations and for courts to review agency actions. A law, an implementing rule, and a judgment therefore represent different parts of the process, even when they concern the same food or farming practice.
The scientific entries also have distinct purposes. Wikipedia’s account of risk assessment separates identification of a hazard from examination of exposure and characterization of risk. A research publication may investigate a mechanism or compare evidence, while an agency assessment asks a defined regulatory question. The year of publication identifies a point in that work; it does not make a study a complete answer to every related question.
Engineered-food entries follow both the development of review methods and incidents involving products outside an approval’s scope. WHO’s questions and answers on genetically modified food describe case-by-case assessment and distinguish food questions from environmental questions. This distinction also helps explain why the chronology includes crop incidents, labeling law, and patent decisions alongside scientific reports.
The agency guide explains the division of responsibilities. The account of federal rulemaking follows proposals and final rules, while the court-case guide examines the questions and limits of selected holdings. The reading list groups the sources by subject for a closer look at their methods and scope.
Milestones in law, research, and food technology
In , the Pure Food and Drug Act established federal restrictions on adulterated and mislabeled food moving across state lines, as described in Wikipedia’s account of the law.
In , Congress passed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, giving FDA authority over food and other regulated products, according to Wikipedia’s account of the statute.
In , the Administrative Procedure Act established the federal framework for agencies to propose regulations and for courts to review agency action, as Wikipedia’s account of the act explains.
In , the Food Additives Amendment introduced the generally recognized as safe exemption alongside requirements for new additives, according to Wikipedia’s account of the amendment.
In , the Food and Agriculture Organization established the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the body that develops international food standards, as recorded in Wikipedia’s account of Codex.
In , the Codex Alimentarius Commission held its first session in Rome after the World Health Organization joined the work, according to Wikipedia’s account of the commission.
In , the World Health Assembly created IARC as the World Health Organization’s specialized agency for research on cancer, as Wikipedia’s account of IARC records.
In , IARC’s advisory committee recommended expert reviews of carcinogenic chemicals, beginning the monograph series discussed in Wikipedia’s account of the program.
In , Physiological Reviews published Intestinal absorption of peptides, whose PubMed record supplies bibliographic details but no abstract.
In , the Supreme Court held in Diamond v. Chakrabarty that a human-made microorganism could qualify as patentable subject matter, according to Wikipedia’s case account.
In , the federal government finalized the Coordinated Framework for Regulation of Biotechnology, setting out policy for the introduction of biotechnology products, as Wikipedia’s account of the framework explains.
In , the first confirmed instance of a cow becoming ill with bovine spongiform encephalopathy occurred in the United Kingdom, according to Wikipedia’s account of BSE.
In , the Organic Foods Production Act authorized a National Organic Program administered by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, as described in Wikipedia’s account of the act.
In , Science published a human food safety evaluation of bovine growth hormone that reviewed scientific literature and submitted studies, as the PubMed record of the evaluation describes.
In , FDA’s policy stated that food from engineered plants must meet the same requirements and safety standards as traditionally bred food, according to FDA’s history of food modification.
In , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development formulated substantial equivalence as a food safety policy, comparing a new food with a traditional counterpart, according to Wikipedia’s account of the concept.
In , FDA approved bovine somatotropin for dairy cows following its animal-drug review, as FDA’s page on bovine somatotropin records.
In , FDA completed its evaluation of the Flavr Savr tomato, which was first sold that year, according to Wikipedia’s account of the engineered tomato.
In , Dolly was born after cloning from an adult somatic cell, the milestone described in Wikipedia’s account of the sheep.
In , the National CJD Surveillance Unit first identified variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in Edinburgh, according to Wikipedia’s account of the disease.
In , the Food Quality Protection Act amended federal pesticide and food law and required a health-based standard for pesticides used in food, according to Wikipedia’s account of the statute.
In , FDA, USDA, and CDC established the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, as recorded in FDA’s timeline of antimicrobial-resistance actions.
In , FDA prohibited certain extralabel uses of antimicrobial drugs, an action recorded in FDA’s antimicrobial-resistance timeline.
In , food containing StarLink corn was recalled after the engineered corn, which lacked approval for human consumption, was detected in food products, according to Wikipedia’s account of the recall.
In , APMIS Supplementum published a review comparing the European Union and U.S. approaches to hormones used in meat production, as described in the PubMed record.
In , the European Food Safety Authority was established to provide independent scientific advice about the food chain, according to Wikipedia’s account of EFSA.
In , Codex developed principles for human health risk analysis of food derived from modern biotechnology, according to the World Health Organization’s questions and answers on engineered food.
In , FDA withdrew fluoroquinolone approvals for poultry, as recorded in FDA’s antimicrobial-resistance timeline.
In , USDA detected the engineered rice line LL601 in export shipments before it had food approval, according to Wikipedia’s account of genetically modified rice.
In , FAO released Livestock’s Long Shadow, examining livestock’s environmental effects and possible policy responses, according to Wikipedia’s account of the report.
In , FDA issued its final animal-cloning risk assessment and reported its conclusion on food from cattle, pig, and goat clones and clone offspring, as FDA’s animal-cloning page records.
In , the Journal of the American Dietetic Association published a retail-milk composition survey comparing milk sold under different farm-management label claims, as the PubMed record describes.
In , the Supreme Court’s ruling in Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms reversed restrictions on partial deregulation of engineered alfalfa while leaving the earlier vacatur of full deregulation outside its review, according to Wikipedia’s case account.
In , the Food Safety Modernization Act became law, adding FDA powers including mandatory recall authority, according to Wikipedia’s account of FSMA.
In , the Supreme Court held in Bowman v. Monsanto Co. that patent exhaustion did not permit reproduction of patented seeds through planting and harvesting without permission, according to Wikipedia’s case account.
In , engineered, glyphosate-resistant wheat was found on an Oregon farm, as described in Wikipedia’s account of genetically modified wheat.
In , Nutrition Research Reviews published a review examining whether dietary peptides and proteins cross the healthy adult intestinal wall intact, as described in the PubMed record.
In , IARC classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans based on limited human evidence and sufficient animal evidence, according to IARC’s explanation of its evaluation.
In , FDA approved the animal-drug application concerning AquAdvantage Salmon, a genetically engineered Atlantic salmon, as FDA’s approval page records.
In , FDA’s produce safety rule took effect, establishing minimum standards for growing, harvesting, packing, and holding covered fruits and vegetables, according to FDA’s account of the final rule.
In , the National Academies released its assessment of engineered crops, covering health, environmental, agricultural, and regulatory questions, as summarized in the National Academies’ report announcement.
In , Congress passed the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law directing USDA to establish a mandatory disclosure standard, as USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service explains.
In , EPA published its glyphosate human health and ecological risk assessments for public comment, as recorded on EPA’s glyphosate page.
In , FDA completed the transition of medically important antimicrobials in livestock feed or drinking water to veterinary oversight and removed production uses such as growth promotion, according to FDA’s action timeline.
In , Nutrients published a review of food-derived bioactive peptides that discussed production, digestion, absorption, and limitations in clinical evidence, as the PubMed record describes.
In , FDA completed its first consultation on food from a genome-edited plant, according to FDA’s history of food modification.
In , FDA announced implementation of the transition of remaining affected over-the-counter medically important animal antimicrobials to prescription status or withdrawal, according to FDA’s antimicrobial-resistance timeline.
In , Frontiers in Endocrinology published a review of the growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor axis and the role of portal insulin, as the PubMed record describes.
In , the Journal of Dairy Science published an invited review on somatotropin and lactation biology, updating discussion of how somatotropin relates to milk production, as described in the PubMed record.
In , WHO published estimates of the global burden of foodborne disease covering the period from 2000 to 2021, as WHO’s food safety fact sheet explains.