ABSTRACT
The evolution from a nomadic to a settled existence was brought about by the development of agriculture, which provided a reliable food supply close to the villages and, later, towns. As the scope of commerce extended, the responsibility for food-safety regulation passed into public hands, being enacted first by towns or provinces and enforced by local magistrates. The oldest historically recorded food law was laid down in Mesopotamia, the cradle of agriculture, by the Babylonian king Hammurabi in about 1780 b.c. The development of food law in other European countries followed a course similar to that in the United Kingdom. Until the end of the nineteenth century, food safety in the United States was subject to state law only, and state legislation on food adulteration and safety, where this existed, was demonstrably inadequate. The first national Japanese regulation applied to aniline and other colors issued under the Meiji empire in 1878.
