In the early 20th century, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, chief chemist of the Bureau of Chemistry (the predecessor to the FDA), launched a crusade against caffeine. Wiley believed caffeine was a dangerous habit-forming drug corrupting American youth through soft drinks.
In 1909, federal agents seized forty barrels and twenty kegs of syrup in Tennessee. The government officially sued the soda container in rem under the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, creating the iconic legal title United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Cans of Coca-Cola.
The government argued two main points: Coca-Cola was misbranded because its name promised coca leaves and cola nuts despite containing almost neither, and its caffeine was an added poisonous ingredient. Coca-Cola countered that caffeine was a fundamental constituent of its secret proprietary formula, not an added substance, and that the product was completely safe. The legal saga dragged on for years, eventually reaching the U.
S. Supreme Court in 1916. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
rejected Coca-Cola's defense, ruling that an ingredient added to a recipe still counted as an added ingredient under the law, regardless of whether it was part of the original secret formula. This created a massive legal precedent giving the government broad powers to regulate added chemical substances in manufactured foods. Ultimately, Coca-Cola settled out of court, agreeing to reduce its caffeine content by half and pay court costs to end the crusade.