Photo by Getty Images Plus/ Nikita Smirnov
05 Jun 2023 Video Resource efficiency

Cold chain reduces food loss and waste, here is how

An estimated 14 percent of total food produced for human consumption is lost, while 17 per cent is wasted. This is enough food to feed around one billion people in the world. The lack of effective refrigeration contributes about 526 million tonnes of food going to waste every year.

One major solution to food loss and waste is better cold chain management, ensuring that products are kept at a suitable and uninterrupted temperature conditions all the way from harvest to plate.

Lack of access to refrigeration along the food chain creates a vicious cycle of food waste and income loss for farmers. This poses a challenge in developing countries, particularly in rural areas, where most of the food is produced.

Scaling up cold chain infrastructure through sustainable, renewable energy to power cooling and, where viable, using renewable energy to reduce the impact on climate warming that is in line with The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and its Kigali Amendment and Rome Declaration is key