ABSTRACT
A need has always been felt for some control on the quality of foodstuffs. Such control is intended to protect the health of the consumer and to prevent misrepresentation with respect to the composition of food. In the days of early food legislation, the protection of food was mostly local, and municipal ordinances were promulgated for that purpose. Later, when auxiliary sciences such as bacteriology, chemistry, and microbiology developed, statutory regulations were initiated in many countries, leading, at the beginning of the twentieth century, to the adoption of official food legislation and regulations.
