Caroline Strong just bought a new refrigerator she keeps stocked with everything from vegetables to cans of juice. A Sub-Zero addition for her kitchen? No, a 10-pound portable model -- for her car. "It makes my life a whole lot simpler," says the Michigan account manager who often snacks behind the wheel.

With more people than ever having breakfast in their cars, the appliance industry is pushing a whole new generation of appliances and gadgets to lure people away from the kitchen table. From blenders that mix in to-go cups to coffee mugs that plug into the dash, makers say the new products could be one of their fastest-growing categories this year. "The portable refrigerators are flying out of here," says Kevin Bart, of Mobilegear.com, where sells to-go dining products.

But while the new gizmos may be a bright spot for the struggling small-kitchen-appliance industry, which saw sales fall 6% in the second half of last year, everyone from sociologists to car detailers say they're a bad idea. These days "you're more likely to find french fries in the car than a penny," says Harry Balzer, vice president of NPD Group, which tracks consumer eating habits. Also unhappy: safety experts. "Everybody should focus entirely on driving," says Jane Stutts of the University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research Center. Indeed, a new study ranks mobile eating just behind cellphone use as a cause of distracted-driving accidents.

But parents, especially, say the new gadgets can make life easier. Jane Voltz likes to make home-cooked waffles for her three children's breakfast, but they often don't have time to sit and eat. So the Virginia stay-at-home mother recently picked up a cooker that turns out waffle sticks for the road. Now she just throws a batch into a bag and lets everyone have their morning meal in her minivan. "It's just like eating at home," she says -- though she admits it's undermining her lessons on table manners. "They just eat them with their fingers," says Mrs. Voltz.

(Agencies)