5 Accidental Food Inventions You Can’t Imagine Life without (#2 Is Surely Your Personal Favorite)

Accidents, big or small, are part of everyone’s life. While most of us would like to stay away from accidents, they are inevitable. But What if this inevitability turns into our favor and leads us to an unplanned invention.

And what if these accidental inventions might lead to a food discovery? Now that’s way too hypothetical, right? Well, you are allowed to think this way but history suggests otherwise.

Not only do these accidental inventions turn out to be life-changing in the future but also have made their way to our staples. Some of the accidental food inventions have a fascinating storyline that'll surely leave you with your eyebrows raised. And that’s a reason why these food items have made their way to our (accidental inventions) list.

Coca-cola 

Imagining our lives without Coca-cola in it seems almost impossible? This soft drink has been the life of parties since forever. Coca-cola is not only limited to a drink, it today stands for a brand name that has maintained its taste for over a century. The ‘Coca-cola’ company also caters to some of the other famous drinks including Sprite, Fanta, etc.

The product owes its birthplace to Atlanta, Georgia, and was born or introduced to the world on May 8, 1886. A local pharmacist, Dr. John Stith Pemberton initially produced the syrup for Coca-cola as a part of an experiment for creating an alternative to his cocaine addiction.

He carried the product in a jug to Jacobs' Pharmacy down the street. Where it was sampled and immediately approved owing to its ‘excellent’ taste. It was sold for five cents a glass teamed up with carbonated water which made it ‘delicious and refreshing’, something the drink stands for, even today.

Potato Chips

This is our personal favorite! How can we live in a world without the ‘best snack’ in the world? The product speaks for itself and its crispy texture is to die for! Can you imagine where companies like ‘Lay’s and Pringles’ would be if potato chips were never invented?

This food invention goes back to a fascinating story. The credit of the invention goes to an African-American chef, George Crum in 1853. Apparently, Crum was serving fried potatoes to a fussy customer who was discontented with the thickly-cut potatoes and wanted Crum to thin out the pieces.

So, the chef made pieces that were too thin to eat with a fork, just to annoy his customer but surprisingly, the customer enjoyed them, and voila! Potato chips were invented.

It is also reported that Crum's chips were originally known as Saratoga Chips. After this, William Tappendon manufactured and sold the product first in Cleveland, Ohio in 1895.

So, were potato chips the result of a chef's frustration? Yes, but we are not complaining.

Popsicles 

This cold and hydrating treat is a summer must-have. Popsicles are a bite of heaven. This treat is catered towards kids but the variety of flavors can be enjoyed by all age groups. Surprisingly, this treat for kids was also invented by one 11 year old.

A kid by the name of Frank Epperson accidentally invented this product in 1905. He had mixed water and some sugary soda powder and left it overnight without any specific intentions. The mixture froze due to low temperature at night.

The next morning, Epperson devoured the icy creation, licking it off a wooden stirrer. Talk about sheer luck! He started selling this treat after seventeen years of this incident. Epperson initially called this product epsicle but later changed its name to popsicle as urged by his children.

Ice-Cream Cones

Everyone comes into our life for a reason. Well, you have probably heard this statement but this is especially true in the context of the invention of Ice-Cream Cones. Surprisingly, a chance meeting between two vendors is the sole reason for the invention of ice-cream cones. 

At St. Louis world’s fair in 1904, Ernest A. Hamwi, a Syrian concessionaire was selling a crisp, waffle-like pastry in a booth right next to an ice cream vendor. Due to the high demand for ice cream, the vendor ran out of dishes.

So, as an easy solution, Hamwi quickly rolled one of his waffle-pastry in a 'cone' shape and handed it to an ice-cream lover. The cone cooled down and the Ice-cream vendor served his ice cream in it to customers, which contented them and the rest is history!

Corn Flakes

Corn flakes are an integral part of American breakfast. It has become a commodity that has made its way into our lives smoothly and also dietary plans of more than half of the population.

For a health-conscious person, Corn-flakes are part of the routine due to their nutritious qualities. This health-conscious angle also played an important role in the accidental invention of this product.

Dr. John Harvey Kellog was one of the most known wellness ‘gurus' in the 1800s which was also a time of a movement among seventh-day Adventists to stick to a diet of vegetarian food.

So, at Michigan’s Battle Creek Sanitarium superintendent John Harvey Kellogg decided to develop some new recipes for his guests and tasked his brother, Will Kellogg, to come up with some recipes.

As they were trying to create a healthy granola treat for their patients, they accidentally created flakes out of corn and wheat, a little more experimentation, and therefore, the birth of corn flakes. Well, now you also know the history of the relation between Kellogg's and Corn-Flakes.

These accidental inventions also prove that sometimes necessity is not a key to innovations and inventions, rather sheer luck and unintended accidents can land you on some life-changing discoveries. And if they do, the best we can do is to welcome them with open arms.

Written by - Gunjan Nagpal

Edited by - Akanksha Sharma