The University of Chile’s Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA) is celebrating 50 years of impactful research and public health contributions. Established on March 1, 1976, the institute has become a leading national center dedicated to studying nutrition, food, and their impact on population health – work that is increasingly vital as global health challenges evolve.
INTA’s origins trace back to the 1950s, when childhood malnutrition rates in Chile reached alarming levels. By 1960, over 50% of children under five experienced some degree of malnutrition, and infant mortality exceeded 300 per 1,000 live births. In response, a group of health professionals, including pediatricians and biochemists, founded the Pediatric Investigations Laboratory at the University of Chile’s Faculty of Medicine in 1954.
This team of scientists sought evidence-based solutions to improve the health of Chileans. Their work led to the creation of the Department of Nutrition in 1972, which was then merged with the Department of Biochemistry – led by Dr. Marco Perretta – in 1976 to formally establish INTA.
The institute’s initial mission was to generate knowledge, train specialists, and contribute to public policies aimed at eradicating malnutrition. Through initiatives like complementary feeding programs (Leche Purita), food fortification, health education, and applied research, Chile successfully addressed childhood malnutrition as a public health problem by the 1980s, earning international recognition for this achievement.
“It was a group of people who were committed to moving forward, and each one, in a multifactorial way, according to their specialization, was ready to combine with their colleagues and delegate an aspect that could be the path to continuing to take steps forward,” recalls Dr. Fernando Mönckeberg in a video marking the institute’s 50th anniversary.
Dr. Mönckeberg added, “Chile at that time was a really regrettable country, very poor and without any orientation indicating any goal to achieve. We made many very significant discoveries, and one of the fundamental ones was that human development has tremendous significance during the first periods of life, even from pregnancy. A whole philosophy was created on how an interdisciplinary scientific organization could focus on the development of the country. To do this, it was essential to start in the early periods of life. And that’s what was done.”
Over the past five decades, INTA’s scope has expanded significantly. Today, the institute addresses nutrition throughout the entire life cycle – from infancy to old age – using an evidence-based, holistic approach. Its research, conducted by faculty members alongside researchers and graduate students, spans basic nutrition to the implementation of public policies and the development of healthy foods, including the study of chronic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, and other diet-related disorders.
University of Chile Rector Rosa Devés highlighted the institute’s importance, stating, “We congratulate the INTA community on its 50 years of contribution to the country and the University, producing relevant knowledge that impacts various dimensions of science and people’s daily lives. It is especially significant that it now bears the name of its first director, Dr. Fernando Mönckeberg Barros, whose work to defeat malnutrition in Chile is one of the most essential scientific and social advances in our nation’s history.”
INTA Director Francisco Pérez Bravo describes the institute’s continued relevance, stating, “50 years after its creation, the institute continues to play a key role in generating scientific evidence to guide public policies in nutrition, and health. Today we face different challenges than those of five decades ago, such as obesity and chronic diseases, so our work and commitment is to contribute, through research and the training of specialists, to improving the quality of life of the population throughout the life cycle. Current challenges in nutrition require moving towards more comprehensive approaches that consider genetic, environmental and social factors.”
Dr. Mönckeberg emphasizes that INTA is “on the right track and has more than to respond with concrete, objective things, with advances in new knowledge and in the transformation of that knowledge into real facts and changes for the development of the country, something that we do not see with the same clarity in most of the countries of Latin America today. INTA is giving an example of what universities should be: what they should invest in and how they should invest, not only with a view to the present, but to ensure the future.”
Research to Address New Nutritional Challenges
The knowledge generated by INTA is disseminated through technical support to public organizations, participation in scientific committees, and the development of technological solutions aimed at improving the nutritional quality of foods available to the population.
The faculty actively participates in the discussion, formulation, evaluation, and implementation of public policies related to nutrition and food in Chile. These include initiatives related to food fortification, such as salt iodization, wheat flour fortification with iron and folic acid, and milk and flour fortification with vitamin D, as well as its technical contribution to the implementation of Law 20.606 on the Nutritional Composition of Foods and its Advertising.
In this area, the Direction of Technical Assistance plays an important role by linking academic research with the food industry, contributing to the development, reformulation and certification of foods, as well as validating their functional properties through clinical studies.
INTA has also strengthened its role in professional training through its Graduate School, which offers master’s, doctoral, diploma, and specialization courses. The Master of Nutrition and Food, created in 1975, is the oldest at the University of Chile, with more than 1,000 graduates in its four areas of specialization. To date, more than 6,500 people have specialized in the institute’s various continuing education programs, with nearly 30% of the enrollment consisting of students from Latin American countries.
In the area of health care, the CEDINTA Diagnostic Center is a national reference point for the diagnosis and treatment of complex metabolic and nutritional diseases in children and adolescents, supported by specialized laboratories that allow addressing pathologies of high complexity. Since 1992, the Metabolic Diseases Laboratory (LEM) has been the national reference center for the diagnosis of phenylketonuria (PKU), participating in the National Newborn Screening Program of the Ministry of Health, which it helped implement. Clinical and nutritional follow-up is also provided to people with rare diseases under the framework of Law 20.850, known as the Ricarte Soto Law.
As it celebrates its 50th anniversary, INTA looks to the future as a national and regional benchmark in scientific research, advanced human capital training, and innovation in nutrition and food. Its work continues to be focused on generating transdisciplinary knowledge that contributes to improving nutrition, health, and the quality of life of the Chilean and Latin American population.
