8 Life-Changing Food Products You Never Knew Were Created By Women

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Many of the items you probably use daily in the kitchen were invented by women.

That cup of coffee you crave first thing in the morning? You can thank Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz. The frozen pizza—and pizza rolls—you search for to satisfy those late-night cravings and game-day needs? Courtesy of Rose Totino. (Yes, that Totino.) Those oven mitts that help remove the aforementioned frozen comfort food from the oven? Stephanie Kwolek played a part.

Countless women have created food products and tools that have shaped how we cook, eat, and live. In honor of Women’s History Month, here are eight game-changing items you probably didn’t know were invented by women.

Dishwashers

Josephine Cochrane is not a household name, but she made our household lives significantly more manageable. In 1883, after the death of her husband left her in considerable debt, the Ohio native started working on her “dish-washing machine.” She received a patent in 1886 and sold her invention through her own Garis-Cochran Dish Washing Machine Company. She exhibited her dishwashers at the World’s Columbian Exposition and won a prize for “best mechanical construction, durability, and adaptation to its line of work.” KitchenAid eventually absorbed Ms. Cochrane’s company, and she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.

Coffee Filters

German pioneer Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz revolutionized how we enjoy our morning coffee by introducing the paper filter. Frustrated by finding grounds in her coffee and having to clean the dirty pot afterward, Ms. Bentz placed coffee grounds on a piece of paper torn from her son’s notebook and poured water over it. The result was a smooth cup of coffee without those pesky grounds. After obtaining a patent in 1908, Ms. Melitta Bentz co-founded her groundbreaking company with her husband, Hugo. Business has thrived since; the Melitta Group now employs around 6,000 people globally.

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Frozen Pizza Crust

Rose Totino and her husband Jim debuted Totino’s pizza shop in Minneapolis in 1951. Initially a take-out operation, Totino’s gained a following and grew to a full-service restaurant selling frozen pasta and pizzas. They expanded their frozen pizza operation, and by 1975, they ranked number 2 nationally in frozen pizza sales. Pillsbury came knocking, and Rose Totino sold her business for $22 million. She became Pillsbury’s first female vice president, the first woman vice president of a Fortune 500 company.

Ice Cream Makers

Thanks to Nancy Johnson, we all scream for ice cream. In the mid-19th century, ice cream was a luxury reserved for those with access to ice houses, according to the Museum of Ice Cream. But in 1843, Ms. Johnson changed that. She invented the first hand-cranked ice cream maker with an “artificial freezer,” which made it possible to churn smooth, creamy ice cream without an actual freezer. The invention was essentially a pail inside a larger container. The internal pail had paddles for churning and held the ingredients—the space between the inner and outer containers was packed with salt and crushed ice. A hand crank moved the paddles, churning and cooling the ice cream mixture simultaneously. Ms. Johnson sold her patent in 1848, and dozens more ice cream maker patents were filed in the decades after Johnson filed hers.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

We should all bow down to Ruth Wakefield for the chocolate chip cookies recipe gracing the back of Toll House chocolate chip packages. In 1930, Ms. Wakefield and her husband opened the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, where she cooked and baked for guests. Her cookies dotted with chopped-up pieces of semi-sweet Nestle chocolate were a popular dessert. While the recipe’s origins are unclear, we know that Nestle asked her permission to start printing the recipe on the back of their chocolate bars, and it eventually led to the production of Nestle chocolate chips. Ms. Wakefield sold the rights to her coveted recipe to Nestlé in 1939. In turn, the company gave her a lifetime supply of free chocolate.

Fruit Presses

Inventor and Oakland, California native Madeline Turner is part of the reason your go-to juice bar exists. In 1916, she received a patent for her fruit press, a machine that presses fruit through an opening, cuts the fruit in half, and presses the halves between plates to extract the juice. It made for a much more efficient juicing process, and according to blackpast.org, all modern juicers are based on her original design. Grand View Research reports that the juicing industry was estimated at $2.65 billion dollars in 2023—a feat that wouldn’t have been possible without Ms. Turner.

Kevlar

Polish-American Pennsylvania native Stephanie Kwolek invented Kevlar, the lightweight and heat-resistant fiber used for everything from body armor (read: bulletproof vests) to car breaks and boats. It also can be found in oven mitts, providing heat resistance when removing those hot casseroles from a 450˚F oven. A dedicated chemist, Ms. Kwolek set out to find new fibers capable of withstanding extreme temperature conditions. Kevlar, developed in 1965, was the solution. Ms. Kwolek worked at the American multinational chemical company DuPont for over four decades and received numerous awards, including Dupont’s Lavoisier Medal for Outstanding Technical Achievement.

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The Always Pan

Shifting gears from running the Malala Project, activist and entrepreneur Shiza Shahid took a gamble to bring multi-functional and sustainable cookware to the home cook. She launched the cookware brand Our Place with her husband, Amir Tehrani, and partner Zach Rosner in 2019. The gamble paid off. Her modern invention, the Always Pan, which braises, steams, strains, fries, and more, was an instant hit, going viral on Instagram. Available in various pastel hues (and black), the Always Pan is made with Thermakind® ceramic nonstick coating, which the brand says is free from potentially toxic materials like PFAS.

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