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Food Label Requirements
Everybody’s
Brand Apricots label; July 28, 1931. The beginnings of the food label industry in the early 20th century coincided with the beginnings of the consumer protection and pure food movements. The mystery surrounding what might or might not be packed in a can, and the incidence of disease and even death, prompted public health advocates to demand informational labeling of food. The Pure Food and Drug Act, passed in 1906, created a federal agency charged with protecting the nation’s consumers, today called the Food and Drug Administration.
In the thirty years following the Food and Drug Act, regulations for accurate labeling became more and more specific. The 1913 Gould Amendment required that food package contents be “plainly and conspicuously marked on the outside of the package in terms of weight, measure, or numerical count.” But not until 1930 did the federal government require that the label include a designation of quality. The quality designations were general – standard, above standard, below standard but still consumable, below standard for the foreign market. But they at least gave shoppers some hint about what they were consuming. Detailed ingredient lists and nutritional information were not required until the 1960s. Muirson Label Company and their clients had to submit their labels to the FDA to ensure that they provided appropriate and accurate information about the product.
