Digital Commons Network^™

Food, Drugs, And Droods: A Historical Consideration Of Definitions And Categories In American Food And Drug Law, Lewis Grossman

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article explores the development and interaction of the legal and cultural categories food and drug from the late nineteenth century to the present. It is based not only on legal and historical research, but also on theories of category formation from the fields of linguistics and psychology.The scope of the Food and Drug Administration's power is defined primarily by the list of product categories over which it has jurisdiction. The statutory definitions of these categories (food, drug, cosmetic, device, and human biological product) thus delineate the outer boundaries of the arena within which the agency operates. The definitions are …