Editing Refrigerator (section)

== Impact ==

=== Global adoption ===
The gradual global adoption of refrigerators marks a transformative era in food preservation and domestic convenience. Since the refrigerators introduction in the 20th century, refrigerators have transitioned from being luxurious items to everyday commodities which have altered the understandings of food storage practices. Refrigerators have significantly impacted various aspects of many individual's daily lives by providing food safety to people around the world spanning across a wide variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The global adoption of refrigerators has also changed how societies handle their food supply. The introduction of the refrigerator in different societies has resulted in the monetization and industrialized mass food production systems which are commonly linked to increased food waste, animal wastes, and dangerous chemical wastes being traced back into different ecosystems. In addition, refrigerators have also provided an easier way to access food for many individuals around the world, with many options that commercialization has promoted leaning towards low-nutrient dense foods.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Meuse |first=Matt |date=April 21, 2023 |title=How the humble household refrigerator changed the world — for better and for worse |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/how-the-humble-household-refrigerator-changed-the-world-for-better-and-for-worse-1.6810938 }}</ref>

After consumer refrigerators became financially viable for production and sale on a large scale, their prevalence around the globe expanded greatly. In the United States, an estimated 99.5% of households have a refrigerator.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-11-05 |title=Not just a cool convenience: How electric refrigeration shaped the "cold chain" |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/not-just-cool-convenience-how-electric-refrigeration-shaped-cold-chain |access-date=2023-12-05 |website=americanhistory.si.edu |language=en}}</ref> Refrigerator ownership is more common in developed Western countries, but has stayed relatively low in Eastern and developing countries despite its growing popularity. Throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East, only 80% of the population own refrigerators. In addition to this, 65% of the population in China are stated to have refrigerators. The distribution of consumer refrigerators is also skewed as urban areas exhibit larger refrigeration ownership percentages compared to rural areas.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Martinez |first1=Sebastian |last2=Murguia |first2=Juan M. |last3=Rejas |first3=Brisa |last4=Winters |first4=Solis |date=2021-01-13 |title=Refrigeration and child growth: What is the connection? |journal=Maternal & Child Nutrition |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=e13083 |doi=10.1111/mcn.13083 |issn=1740-8695 |pmc=7988856 |pmid=33439555}}</ref>

=== Supplantation of the ice trade ===
The [[ice trade]] was an industry in the 19th and 20th centuries of the harvesting, transportation, and sale of natural and artificial ice for the purposes of refrigeration and consumption. The majority of the ice used for trade was harvested from North America and transported globally with some smaller operations working out of [[Norway]].<ref>Clemen, Rudolf A. “The American Ice Harvests: An Historical Study in Technology, 1800–1918. By Richard O. Cummings. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1949. Pp. x, 184. $3.00.” ''The Journal of economic history'' 10.2 (1950): 226–227. Web.</ref> With the introduction of more affordable large and home scale refrigeration around the 1920s, the need for large scale ice harvest and transportation was no longer needed, and the ice trade subsequently slowed and shrank to smaller scale local services or disappeared altogether.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-07 |title=Tracing the History of New England's Ice Trade |url=https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/tracing-the-history-of-new-england-ice-trade/ |access-date=2023-12-04 |website=Boston University |language=en}}</ref>

=== Effect on diet and lifestyle ===
The refrigerator allows households to keep food fresh for longer than before. The most notable improvement is for meat and other highly perishable wares, which previously needed to be preserved or otherwise processed for long-term storage and transport.<ref name="Craig">{{Cite journal |last=Craig |first=L. A. |date=2004-06-01 |title=The Effect of Mechanical Refrigeration on Nutrition in the United States |url=http://ssh.dukejournals.org/cgi/doi/10.1215/01455532-28-2-325 |journal=Social Science History |language=en |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=325–336 |doi=10.1215/01455532-28-2-325 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |issn=0145-5532|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This change in the supply chains of food products led to a marked increase in the quality of food in areas where refrigeration was being used. Additionally, the increased freshness and shelf life of food caused by the advent of refrigeration in addition to growing global communication methods has resulted in an increase in cultural exchange through food products from different regions of the world. There have also been claims that this increase in the quality of food is responsible for an increase in the height of United States citizens around the early 1900s.<ref name="Craig" />

Refrigeration has also contributed to a decrease in the quality of food in some regions. By allowing, in part, for the phenomenon of [[globalization]] in the food sector, refrigeration has made the creation and transportation of [[ultra-processed foods]] and [[convenience foods]] inexpensive, leading to their prevalence, especially in lower-income regions. These regions of lessened access to higher quality foods are referred to as [[food desert]]s.

Freezers allow people to buy food in bulk and eat it at leisure, and [[Economies of scale|bulk purchases may save money]]. [[Ice cream]], a popular commodity of the 20th century, could previously only be obtained by traveling to where the product was made and eating it on the spot. Now it is a common food item. Ice on demand not only adds to the enjoyment of cold drinks, but is useful for first-aid, and for cold packs that can be kept frozen for picnics or in case of emergency.