Canning and Bottling: Challenges and Opportunities

Despite the spectacular success and rapid expansion of the bottling and canning industry, all was not well in the food-packaging world. Since the industry’s inception, contamination and adulteration had been alarming problems. These afflictions became more menacing and more visible as the industry expanded. Fly-by-night manufacturers filled cans and bottles with low-quality products or toxic ingredients, and illness and death resulted. These abuses spurred on the movement to enact pure food laws in states and attempts to pass legislation in Congress beginning in 1876. Federal efforts were not successful until June 1906, when Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act. While passage of the act did not immediately end all abuses, serious problems sharply declined subsequently.