traces how health concerns informed good governance of the urban food trades. Urban authorities, in negotiation with food-related guilds and traders, established, intervened in, and physically altered food markets in order to expel wares deemed unsafe for consumption. The central position of food in Galenic medical theories of health preservation was reflected in an urban context especially in the policies around three highly regulated products: meat, fish and grain. Market inspectors, and likely also vendors and buyers, applied medical knowledge on preservation and disease risks. The extensive regulation of grain and bread provision closely related to issues of urban order and threat of shortages. Finally, butchering in particular was also targeted as a source of environmental pollution through coordinating the disposal of offal.