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Food safety and public health. Interaction of science and law in the federal regulatory process
Author(s) -
Cordle Frank,
Kolbye Albert C.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(197905)43:5+<2143::aid-cncr2820430725>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - mandate , food and drug administration , regulatory science , polybrominated biphenyls , public health , environmental health , hazard , business , food safety , action (physics) , process (computing) , medicine , law , political science , polybrominated diphenyl ethers , biology , pollutant , operating system , pathology , quantum mechanics , computer science , ecology , physics , nursing
The programs of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which operates under a broad mandate of regulatory authority provided by the Congress in the form of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, demonstrate the way in which science and law interact to protect public health through the regulatory process. In particular, sections 402, 406, and 409 of the Act provide the means for regulating both new and old food products approved for use by the petition process as well as foods which present a potential hazard because of environmental accidents which result in residues of undesirable or dangerous chemical substances. The episodes of foods contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), and the manner in which action levels or guidelines were developed to regulate the allowable levels of these chemicals in foods, describe the pragmatic way in which FDA protects public health by restricting the allowable levels of chemical substances in foods.