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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – If you have ever bought frozen food in the supermarket or enjoyed the benefit of perishable foods delivered by refrigerated trucks or rail cars you owe a debt to the brilliant mind of Mary Engle Pennington. There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that reported that even though women have made major discoveries and advances in many fields, few are serial innovators. Why? The responsibilities for children and families often interrupt careers. Those women who are serial innovators throughout their careers, rarely have children and few are married. Like Grace Murray Hopper one of the first computer programmers and a US Navy Rear Admiral, Mary Pennington had neither.
She received a certificate of proficiency in chemistry, botany and zoology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1892 – at the time women were denied graduation degrees because of their sex – and completed her PhD, at age of 22, in 1895, followed by fellowships at Penn and Yale. Despite these impressive credentials Dr. Pennington had trouble securing work. She founded the Philadelphia Clinical Laboratory where she conducted bacteriological analysis for physicians and then moved to the Philadelphia Department of Health.
At the Department of Health Dr. Pennington developed techniques and standards for milk inspection. One of her goals was to educate farmers on how to handle raw milk in order to clean up the impure ice cream that was being sold to school children. She convinced vendors to disinfect their pots with boiling water. A step that would be taken for granted today. Pennington’s work caught the attention of Harvey Wiley, considered the “father of the FDA”, and a leader in passing the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Wiley and Pennington began working on cold food storage problems.
With his encouragement Pennington took and achieved a very high score on the Civil Service exam which would allow her to take a position with the federal government. Wiley disguised the fact that she was a woman by submitting his hiring request under the name M.E. Pennington. When his subterfuge was discovered, he argued that Dr. Pennington had scored very high on the exam, had excellent credentials, and that the civil service law did not have a provision against hiring women. It was simply that few, if any women would have tried to secure a position that he wanted for Pennington.
She joined the USDA in 1905 and became the chief of its Food Research Lab in 1908. One of her main tasks was to implement the 1906 Act by developing methods and systems for the safe transportation and storage of food in the US. By the early 1900s, the US population was shifting to cities and becoming more dependent on stores which in turn were dependent on foods that were increasingly being shipped long distances. For urban dwellers backyard home gardens, which in the past had provided a good deal of the fresh food in the US, were no longer possible.
Mary Pennington was a trailblazer who oversaw how the US food supply was handled, transported and stored. Her laboratory conducted pioneering research on why fresh foods held longer when kept at a constant low temperature. She proved that eliminating temperature fluctuations kept down bacterial counts. Her work led to the standards for cold storage for eggs, milk and cheese. She taught government agencies, farmers, and the general public the importance of the proper handling of perishable foods. Something most of us take for granted today.
Over her 40-year career she traveled the nation investigating the efficiency of refrigerated railway cars, recommending better and safer standards for construction and insulation. After she left her civil service job in 1919 she continued to innovate in the design and construction of refrigerated warehouses and commercial and home refrigerators. She was passionate about finding the best ways to freeze different foods to maintain both safety and quality.
Throughout her career she received numerous award and patents. This year she will be inducted posthumously into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Till her death in 1952, at 80, she worked, serving as a refrigeration expert and as the vice president of the American Institute of Refrigeration.
Without Mary Engle Pennington many of today’s advances in cold storage and refrigeration and the innovations in the thousands of frozen foods we enjoy would not have been possible. As a dietitian, intimately involved in the safe handling, storage and the preparation of food, I had never heard of this remarkable woman who championed many of the advances that my profession uses. I’m sure Dr. Pennington would delight in using some of the smart refrigerators that we have available today.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of 30 books. Available as eBooks from iTunes and Kindle/Amazon:
Diabetes Counter – the most up-to-date information on managing diabetes
Calorie Counter – a weight loss guide that won’t let you down
Protein Counter – put the latest protein recommendations to work for you
Healthy Wholefoods Counter – planet-friendly eating made easy
Complete Food Counter – food counts and nutrition information at your fingertips
Fat and Cholesterol Counter – newest approach to heart-healthy eating
Available in print from Gallery Books:
Most Complete Food Counter, 3rd Ed.
Your Complete Food Counter App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/your-complete-food-counter/id444558777?mt=8
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to: www.TheNutritionExperts.com.