We did spend a lot of time in the drafting room on that, Mr. Chair.
You needed something to identify the product before it was classified as a drug or a food, so “thing” was really chosen to be malleable enough that it could be all three. Chewing gum, for example, is a thing that could be a cosmetic if it whitens teeth. It could be a food. It could be a drug if it makes dental claims.
When we look at it prior to classification, we treat it as a thing in the act, and then we'll sort which lane it goes into.