ABSTRACT
The terms wholesome or wholesomeness are often used in discussions on the safety of foods in general and of irradiated foods in particular. They require a few words of explanation because they do not occur in the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which is the major legal instrument for ensuring safety of foods in the United States. In the 1950s some food companies in the United States had used food labels which suggested that their products were good for health or had some particular value in the control of disease. Any such suggestion was unacceptable under the misbranding sections of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The term wholesome was therefore proposed to describe the qualities of food products in a legally acceptable way, and its use soon became quite general. The Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957 introduced the following definition: “The term wholesome means sound, healthful, clean, and otherwise fit for human food.” Studies on the health safety of irradiated foods were begun on a large scale at that time and these were generally described as wholesomeness studies.
