025 America's Weirdest Food Laws: The Bizarre History of What We Eat

Truth N Trends

From butter that isn't butter to the official definition of mayonnaise, Charles and Sophia take a fun, deep dive into the strange and surprising history of America's food and drug laws. They uncover the bizarre regulations that are still on the books and the muckraking journalists who helped create the FDA.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to Truth and Trends. Today, Charles and I are taking a fun, deep dive into a topic

00:12that we all love, food. But we're not talking about recipes. We're talking about the bizarre

00:17and surprising history of America's food and drug laws.

00:20It's a fascinating topic, Sophia. I found out that the FDA was created largely because

00:25of muckraking journalists who exposed some truly disgusting and unsanitary food practices in the

00:31early 1900s. Yes, the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which exposed the meatpacking industry,

00:37was a huge factor. It led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. And it's a good

00:42reminder that a lot of the things we take for granted today, like clean food, were a hard-fought

00:46battle. And it's also a reminder that some of the laws that came out of that era are still on the

00:52books. Like in Wisconsin, where I have limited knowledge on this, but I believe there are still

00:57regulations on what can be called cheese. You're right. Wisconsin has some of the most strict cheese

01:02laws in the country. They have a very specific set of standards for what a legal cheese is.

01:06It's an example of a law that was created to protect consumers from fraud, but it's still being

01:11enforced today. So if you're in Wisconsin, you want to make sure you're getting a legal cheese.

01:15And did you know that there's a federal standard of identity for mayonnaise? It has to contain at least

01:1965% vegetable oil by weight. That's hilarious. And what about butter? I've always heard that some

01:24of the stuff we eat isn't real butter. You're right. There's a lot of legal wrangling over what

01:28can be called butter. In a lot of states, butter has to be made from cream. And there are laws about

01:33what color you can dye it. And it's not just food. I found out that during the prohibition era,

01:37the government had to regulate what kind of grapes could be sold. Because people were using them to make

01:42wine at home. That's a great little known fact. It just shows how creative people are when they want

01:46something they can't have. And it also shows how complicated our laws can get. It's a reminder

01:51that a lot of these laws were created for a reason. But they've just stuck around. So Charles,

01:56it feels like we've covered the bizarre and the surprising. It's a good reminder of how much our

02:00food and our laws have changed over the last century. It is. It's a fun, little known part of

02:04American history. Thanks for being with us. My pleasure. Well, that's all the time we have for today.

02:09We hope you've enjoyed this look into the quirky world of food and law. We sure have. And we'll see you next time.

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