In 2012, the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of science, set out to name the most significant inventions in the history of food and drink.

A steering group of its Fellows cut a list of about 100 innovations down to 20. Fellows and food industry experts then voted, judging each one on four things: accessibility, productivity, aesthetics and health.

Refrigeration came first. Pasteurization and sterilization came second, canning third. The oven placed fourth. Some of humanity’s oldest tools landed further down: the plough at 10, the fishing net at 12, the knife at 15. The microwave oven, an appliance many of us use every day, came 19th, just ahead of frying.

According to the Society, artificial refrigeration was first demonstrated in Glasgow in 1748 and produced commercially in 1805.

Now look at what we do with the winner. We cover it in paper.

Researchers at UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives of Families filmed and photographed the homes of 32 dual-income, middle-class families in Los Angeles. The typical fridge in the study had 52 objects on its front panel. The most crowded one had 166. The most common item was the decorative magnet. Around the magnets: photos, school art, schedules, phone numbers.

The team also noticed something they described as a correspondence, not a rule: families who tolerated a crowded fridge door tended to have more possessions in the main rooms of the house, too. They suggested the fridge panel may work as a kind of measuring stick for a household’s stuff.

Worth keeping in mind: this was 32 families in one city, and a pattern the researchers observed, not proof that a busy fridge causes a busy house. It’s a fun lens, not a diagnosis.

Sunday Home

Try this at home

Count what’s on your fridge door right now, magnets included. Then take everything off, and put back only what you’ve looked at in the last month. One mom in the study described hers as holding “phone lists that have not been good for years and years.” Those can go.

Be honest: what’s your fridge-door number, and what’s the oldest thing on it?

The carousel — scroll sideways

Carousel slide 1 of 6 Carousel slide 2 of 6 Carousel slide 3 of 6 Carousel slide 4 of 6 Carousel slide 5 of 6 Carousel slide 6 of 6

Sources

Everything above is checked against these. Open any of them.

  1. Royal Society, “Royal Society names refrigeration most significant invention in the history of food and drink,” 13 Sept 2012 (top 20 list, method, 1748/1805)https://royalsociety.org/news/2012/top-20-food-innovations/
  2. Built on: Smithsonian, “Your Fridge Is the Most Important Invention in the History of Food” (Eveleth, 2012)https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/your-fridge-is-the-most-important-invention-in-the-history-of-food-34200256/
  3. UCLA Magazine, “The Clutter Culture” (CELF, 32 families, 52 objects, 166, decorative magnets, fridge as measuring stick, quote about the phone list)https://newsroom.ucla.edu/magazine/center-everyday-lives-families-suburban-america
  4. University of California, book release for *Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century* (32 middle-class, dual-income L.A. families)https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/book-documents-cluttered-paradise-middle-class

Next story

Should Tomatoes Go in the Fridge? Scientists Tested It, and the Answer Is “It Depends on the Clock” Kitchen

Should Tomatoes Go in the Fridge? Scientists Tested It, and the Answer Is “It Depends on the Clock”

Chilling a tomato doesn’t just make it cold. In one study, a week in the cold switched down genes that make its flavor. By Clara Denton
Previously: The Desk That Faces the Window Looks Great. It’s Also the Wrong Way Around.