WASHINGTON — Peter Barton Hutt, a preeminent expert in food and drug law and a trusted adviser to the baking industry, died Sept. 2 at the age of 91 from complications following heart surgery.

A partner with Covington & Burling LLP, Hutt’s career with the Washington firm spanned the years 1960 until his retirement in 2024 (except for four years spent in government). For many of those years, he provided counsel on regulatory matters to the American Bakers Association as well as numerous other industry trade groups.

Born Nov. 16, 1934, the son of a dairy owner in Buffalo, NY, Hutt was a 1956 graduate of Yale College with a degree in political science and government. Hutt held a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he graduated in 1959. The following year he attended and graduated from New York University law school with a postgraduate degree in food and drug law.

Chief counsel for the Food and Drug Administration from 1971 to 1975. Hutt updated the FDA by reinterpreting informal rulemaking authority in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 to authorize legally binding regulations. With this authority, he led the FDA’s promulgation of regulations implementing the review of GRAS food ingredients, to require nutrition labeling and to redefine "imitation" food to modernize food standards. He also spearheaded changes rationalizing the application of the Delaney Clause, which had banned any food additive shown to cause cancer to laboratory animals or humans at any dose, regardless of how small the risk.

For the baking industry, Hutt translated his extraordinary command of law and the regulatory landscape into practical guidance, said Lee Sanders, founder and president, Lee Sanders Strategy Group, McLean, Va.

“Over the years, Peter helped ABA navigate critically important issues ranging from the meaning of ‘fresh’ bread to FDA’s standards of identity for bread and bakery products,” said Sanders, who worked with Hutt for many years in her work as an ABA senior vice president in charge of regulatory affairs.

She said Hutt worked with the ABA to “modernize regulations written for another era so that they continued to protect consumers without unnecessarily standing in the way of innovation.”

In the medical field, Hutt defined regulation of over-the-counter drugs, prompted the passage of regulation of medical devices and helped legitimize off-label drug use.

Hutt testified before Congress more than 100 times and served on the boards of more than 35 health care biotechnology companies. 

For more than 20 years, Hutt taught a course on food and drug law at Harvard Law School.  He was the lead co-author of “Food and Drug Law: Cases and Materials”  and has published more than 175 book chapters and articles on Food and Drug Law and on health policy.

Hutt was a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IOM)) of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) since the IOM was formed in 1971.  

Earlier in his career, Hutt represented on a pro bono basis individuals with alcohol use or drug disorders and the homeless. Based on his work, two-thirds of states with laws making public intoxication a criminal offense repealed the statutes.

Hutt is survived by his wife of 18 years, Catherine Adams Hutt; four children — Katherine Hutt Scott and Peter Barton Hutt II of Bethesda, MD; Sarah Hutt Ludington of Chapel Hill, NC; and Everett Fraser Hutt of Paris; and nine grandchildren. 

A memorial service to celebrate his life will be held at the Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC, at 4 pm on Saturday, Oct. 24, with a reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Hutt Family Scholarship at Alice Lloyd College, a private, Christian work college in Kentucky that provides accessible education for students across Appalachia. Hutt was an active supporter of the school. Donations may be sent to Alice Lloyd College, 100 Purpose Road, Pippa Passes, KY, 41844, or by clicking here.