Misbranding

Recall that the two major federal statutes pertaining to food and drugs in the first half of the twentieth century were the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act (PFDA) and the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). Although the 1938 statute attempted to fix many of the earlier law's failings, many legal requirements and doctrinal frameworks carried over from the PFDA to the FDCA. The PFDA made it illegal to manufacture or transport any food that is "misbranded." Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, sections 1-2, 34 Stat.. 768, 768-72 (repealed 1938). The purpose of the PFDA's misbranding provision was "to make it possible that the consumer should know that an article purchased was what it purported to be; that it might be bought for what it really was, and not under misrepresentations and to character and quality." United States v. Johnson, 221 U.S. 488, 497 (1911).