[History of the scientific field of Food and Nutrition in Public Health in Brazil].

This paper aims to trace the history of the scientific field of Food and Nutrition in Public Health in Brazil (FNPH), trying to describe the contexts that allowed the construction, consolidation and redefinition of the field, to identify the Brazilian scientists who contributed to this process and address the scientific concepts or paradigms that guided the actions of these scientists. As methodological criteria of analysis three cross sections corresponding to contexts of history in this field were established: the first one covers the period from 1930 to 1963, the second one between 1964 and 1984 and the third one considers the period from 1985 to 2010. We conclude that the field of FNPH assumed the current configuration from the mid-1970's, within the so-called Brazilian health movement, whose main ideas were the achievement of health reform and the construction of the Unified Health System. We reaffirm the importance of multidisciplinary character and the premise of the important role of the field of FNPH in ensuring the human right to healthy food, a component of the set of conditions necessary for health promotion, disease prevention, surveillance and health recovery and improvement of quality of life for all Brazilians.