Resumen
This article provides a critical reflection on the condition of knowledge on food and nutrition in Chile. For this it analyzed the historiographical production and the treatments that have been made from the perspective of the consumption, the culture and the health. Later there is approached the emergence of the science of nutrition and its fight against infant mortality and malnutrition. The transnational approaches currently in vogue, allow valuing the efforts at continental level by governments and international institutions to implement policies of popular food.