El Laboratorio Químico Municipal de Antofagasta. Higiene alimentaria y gobierno local en el norte salitrero. Chile, 1894-1906

Abstract

This article studies the Antofagasta Municipal Chemical Laboratory in northern Chile between 1894 and 1906. Throughout the documents of the Municipal Archive, local press and national journals of hygiene, it analyzes some features of this new food policy and its sanitary contribution, in a region recently incorporated to the country. The study suggests that the early creation of the laboratory, which answered critical needs of the nitrate area, gave this institution special features, and integrated with more general processes of food control at a national level. In this context, the laboratory worked as an emergent agency who established food hygiene and safety standards, as well as specific scientific policies and practices. Its scope diminished because of the precariousness of the sanitary intervention and the more structural socio-political problems faced by the population.