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 enhanced the surveillance and understanding of food, as well as the interaction between science and its audiences. Based on a request made by a commercial agent in 1896 related to the certification of bottled mineral water, this article studies the relationship of these users with the laboratory and presents them as active actors in the development of this policy. Based on documentation from the Instituto de Higiene and the Sociedad de Fomento Fabril, amongst others, it suggests that the relationship between both was mediated by commercial interests and was fundamental for the shaping of new regimes of scientific authority and for the legitimation of a new technical and specialized bureaucracy.