All three inventions feature in a top 20 list, which also included the plough, the microwave and baking.
The results were the result of a project which saw a steering group of Royal Society Fellows – including a Nobel prize winner – cut a long list of about 100 innovations to just 20.
Nobel prize winner
The shortlist was then voted on by fellows of the society and experts in the food and drink industry. Each innovation was judged on four criteria: accessibility, productivity, aesthetics, and health.
Chair of the judging panel and Royal Society treasurer Sir Peter Williams said: “Royal Society fellows have played vital roles in improving people’s lives for 350 years and science has a major role to play in meeting the global challenges of the 21st century.
“We thought it appropriate to look at how that innovation has shaped what we eat and drink. The poll reveals the huge role science and innovation have played in improving our health and our lives. This is something to which the scientific community continues to add.”
Terry Jones, Food and Drink Federation director of communications, said:“It’s incredible how food and drink innovations have made such an impact on our lifestyles and interesting to see that items we take so much for granted now, such as the fridge and tin can, are at the top of the Royal Society Fellows list.
Food innovation
“Food innovation is a fascinating and hi-tech area into which we are looking to recruit the best scientists and engineers. I’m sure that in 100 years people will look back nostalgically on some of the cutting edge food technology that we are only just developing now.”
The fridge, pasteurisation and canning resulted from Anglo-French scientific successes in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Mechanical refrigeration was demonstrated first in Glasgow in 1748, before commercial production in 1805.
The first pasteurisation test was conducted in France in 1862.
Meanwhile, a British merchant patented the tin can in 1810. But a year earlier a Frenchman applied a similar process with glass jars and cork.
Top 20 inventions
1 Refrigeration
2 Pasteurisation / sterilisation
3 Canning
4 The oven
5 Irrigation
6 Threshing machine / combine harvester
7 Baking
8 Selective breeding
9 Grinding / milling
10 The plough
11 Fermentation
12 The fishing net
13 Crop rotation
14 The pot
15 The knife
16 Eating utensils
17 The cork
18 The barrel
19 The microwave oven
20 Frying
