Prepared for a crisis and the unexpected: managing everyday eventualities through food storage practices

Abstract

How and why do people store food? What norms, skills and items are involved in practices of stocking up and keeping food in pantries, refrigerators, and freezers? Despite an increasing interest in everyday food practices within food studies, research on domestic food storage practices is limited. In this article I depart from a practice theoretical framework to explore how food storage practices are made meaningful and involve certain competences and materials, with focus on preparedness. I draw on findings from a study on food storage in Sweden using an open-ended questionnaire and popular consumer magazines. The findings show that storing food is a concrete way of managing daily food work, time, social obligations, and potential societal crises. Households’ food storage practices are attempts to manage and control everyday life with its routines and disruptions, and the immediate, distant, or imagined future. However, societal advice for of long-term storage, for example for crises, is challenged by normalized storage spaces, skills, and values attached to food and food storage. I conclude by proposing that a new rationale relating to storage economy may influence the meaning, competences, and materials of food storage practices in favor of household preparedness.