On June 30, 1906, the U.S. Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act (PFDA), which took effect on January 1, 1907. Known at that time as the Food and Drug Act, the PFDA was the culmination of a decades-long effort to get the federal government directly involved in protecting America’s food and medicine supply. While some legislation had been passed at the state level, this was the first major federal law designed to perform this function. It was also the first major federal legislation to pass during what we now call the Progressive era.