FDA's Origin & Functions

This illustrated overview of the history of the Food and Drug Administration is designed to convey in brief some of the key events, themes, people, and trends that helped shape the modern Food and Drug Administration. Subsequent sections on this web site delve considerably deeper into this history and present many additional sources for reading about all aspects of FDA's evolution.

• FDA's Origin
• Part I: FDA History
• Part II: The 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
• Part III: Drugs and Foods Under the 1938 Act and Its Amendments
• Part IV: Regulating Cosmetics, Devices, and Veterinary Medicine After 1938
• Part V: Consumer Protection in the Late-20th Century