Industriales y comerciantes en busca de “calidad”: la certificación alimentaria en los inicios del Instituto de Higiene. Chile, fines del siglo XIX

Manufacturers and merchants in search of “quality”: food certification in the beginning of the Instituto de Higiene. Chile, late 19th century.

Abstract

By the end of the 19th century, manufacturers and merchants became users of a new policy which aimed to control the quality of food and beverages through chemical and in some cases bacteriological analysis. This policy deepened the surveillance and interpretation of food, as well as inaugurated renewed ways of interaction between science and its audiences. Interested in the scope of this policy, different kind of users approached to the laboratories in order to participate in their processes. Among them were the producers and sellers of food and beverages, who composed a special audience for the analysis. Based on a request made by an agent in 1896 related to the certification of mineral bottled water, this article studies the relationship of this specific audience with the spaces of analysis and proposes them as active actor in the management and meaning of this policy. It suggests that the relationship between both was mediated by commercial interests and that the use given to the analysis contributed to its visibility.