Limitations of the 1906 Act
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No provision for food quality or standardized labeling
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Consumers had no way of knowing that the products were of low quality
Salad Bouquet for use "like vinegar," Peanut Spred with few peanuts, and Bred Spred, with a low fruit content and high pectin content were heavily advertised and sold well during the Depression. Consumers had no way of knowing that the products were of low quality.
How did this happen? In World War I, there had been quite a marked expansion in the industry to supply our Allies, esp. the British, as well as our own military with jams, jellies, and preserves. After the war, the overbuilt industry had to go after volume sales with low prices. The development of refined pectin under the Douglas patents made it possible to make much better preserves without using green fruit, but it also make it possible to make sugar and water alone jell. In the marketplace, standards spiraled downward. The consumer could not depend on the labeling or the appearance of the product to guarantee its contents or quality. The only official food standards were voluntary "advisory" standards of the Bureau of Chemistry, forerunner of the present U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As an old-timer described the situation, "there never was a product made but some gosh darn fool could make it worse and sell it for less." The market for fabricated foods under this "distinctive name" proviso grew rapidly following the 1929 stock market crash.
Preserves were not the only consumer products caught in a downward economic spiral in which the incentive was to make products worse. Canned fruit and vegetable manufacturers finally went to Congress and got the so-called "Canner's Amendment (McNary-Mapes) enacted in 1930 which allowed the establishment and enforcement of canned foods, excluding meat and milk products. Substandard products could be sold but did have to carry a so-called "crepe" label--a black label announcement that announced that while a product was good food, it was poor quality.