Frozen Foods Brought Economic and Cultural Change

As it turns out, frozen foods came with unanticipated effects which are still relevant. Once electrification transformed factory production, it also made widespread refrigeration feasible, which ultimately led to frozen foods manufacture. A quick Google search further elaborates:

During the 1940s, the volume of frozen foods available to consumers boomed. It wasn't until the 1950s, though, that the first frozen ready meals hit the shelves in the United States.

Once frozen meals made their way into our homes, the production based expectations of our interpersonal relationships began to dramatically shift. Not only did time use patterns change among those primarily responsible for kitchen duties, but also other family members - particularly for families with limited incomes. Even now, frozen foods in the form of prepared meals, remain one of the simplest cost effective ways to "save time" in the course of a day. 

However one trade-off in these recent changes, is that many processed frozen foods aren't necessarily healthy! Even so, frozen foods are valuable production and consumption options, since they promote personal autonomy by freeing more time for daily routines. Further, the trade-off decisions involved for optimal health versus time saving convenience, are a reminder how personal health involves more time based commitments, than today's healthcare systems can readily provide. 

There was also a cultural trade-off, in terms of the ambivalence surrounding what women could accomplish with their newfound freedom from domestic responsibilities. How might gender relationships change, once women experienced new lifestyle options? 

What was perhaps not widely recognized, is that women were only a part of this changed cultural equation. For one, frozen foods manufacture has given real benefits to men insofar as their own preferences for meals. Equally important is how young, old, and disabled individuals became able to assume more central and often desired roles in kitchen responsibilities. Nevertheless, some of us still love to cook from scratch, even though due to market evolution, cooking is no longer highly valued as a practical skill. Basically that means we end up having to eat more of the leftovers ourselves!

Consider what these changed realities also suggest, regarding other domestic burdens many still face. In particular, some individuals with limited income, lack the stamina to fully maintain dwellings which have yet to benefit from new technology. Only imagine, how innovation in building design and manufacture, might one day alter this unfortunate reality. Once individuals with limited means become better able to take care of needed renovations, their non economic time value would also be improved. Granted, frozen foods manufacture reduced non economic time value for many women. Hopefully these individuals (and countless others) can one day regain value for their non economic time, so as to master their environments with less need of expensive services and other assistance.   

In all of this, technological advances have changed social expectations and there's no going back to earlier cultural realities. This is relevant for both the right and left. Indeed, consider how many individuals of both sexes come to prefer cooking for one, to the compromises involved in routinely sharing meals with others. Likewise, some forget that a truly healthy diet includes more hours in the kitchen than what might be possible. Perhaps these are moments when one can at least cut some fruit and cook some fresh vegetables on the stove, to go with that prepared frozen entree which only needs to be briefly heated in the microwave.