Peter Barton Hutt

Peter Barton Hutt, the food and drug attorney widely called the dean or father of modern food and drug law, died on September 2, 2026, from complications following heart surgery. He was 91. Over more than six decades he reshaped how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration makes rules, created the first modern nutrition labeling format while serving as FDA chief counsel from 1971 to 1975, and taught generations of lawyers at Harvard Law School while practicing at Covington and Burling in Washington, D.C.

Born November 16, 1934, in the Buffalo, New York, area, Hutt was the son of Lester Hutt and Louise Fraser Hutt. His father owned a retail dairy, and as a teenager Peter delivered milk and made milkshakes. That early exposure to food labeling questions followed him to Harvard Law School, where his father began seeking his advice on dairy legal issues. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, earned a B.A. from Yale College in 1956, an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1959, and later an LL.M. in food and drug law at New York University. In 1960 he joined Covington and Burling, the firm that would be his professional home for the rest of his career aside from four years in government.

As FDA chief counsel he reinterpreted the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to authorize binding substantive regulations, moving the agency from case-by-case enforcement toward modern administrative rulemaking. Using that authority, he required nutrition labeling on much of the food supply, modernized GRAS ingredient review, redefined imitation foods, strengthened low-acid canned food controls, launched the OTC Drug Review, established the doctrine that physicians may lawfully prescribe approved drugs for off-label uses, and helped lay groundwork for the Medical Device Amendments of 1976. He testified before Congress more than 100 times across his career and later helped shape Hatch-Waxman, the Orphan Drug Act, NLEA, FDAMA, PDUFA renewals, and the 21st Century Cures Act.

After returning to Covington he represented food, drug, device, dietary supplement, and cosmetic clients and trade associations, served on dozens of biotechnology boards, and became lead co-author of Food and Drug Law: Cases and Materials, the field's standard casebook. From 1994 he taught Food and Drug Law at Harvard each winter term, known for energetic debates, practical simulations, and mentoring that sent students into government, academia, and practice. Colleagues at the Personal Care Products Council credited him with helping build institutions including the Cosmetic Ingredient Review and Look Good Feel Better. He retired from active partnership in 2024-2025 as Covington's first Retired Partner in Residence, still going to the office five days a week.

Hutt is survived by his wife, Catherine Adams Hutt, also an IFT Fellow; four children, Katherine Hutt Scott, Peter Barton Hutt II, Sarah Hutt Ludington, and Everett Fraser Hutt; and nine grandchildren. A memorial service was announced for October 24, 2026, at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., with burial in a private service in the family cemetery in Lewiston, New York. Food attorney Bill Marler wrote that professionals throughout the food sector have spent their careers standing on ground Peter graded, whether or not they knew his name.