The Global Food Cold Chain council arranged a webinar on Zoom on world refrigeration day to discuss the importance of refrigeration in the maintenance of cold chain during the transportation of food.
The Webinar was arranged in collaboration with UN Environment Programme, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), and International institute of refrigeration IIR.
The webinar consisted of two sessions of panel discussion. The first panel discussion was on the topic of “The Global Context of the cold chain sector.” The second panel discussion was on “Cold chain and global agenda; roles of different groups”
The webinar started with a small introductory speech by David Apple President Carrier refrigeration who discussed the cold chain technological development, prospects and challenges.” Nearly 1 billion people go hungry everyday. About 1 third of food is wasted everyday… fifty percent of all perishable food that is wasted today can be saved with refrigeration” He suggested that this might the answer to feeding the 9.7 billion population by the year 2050. This was followed by the start of the first session of panel discussions.
The panelists and refrigeration experts expounded the importance of refrigeration in cold chain management and its direct relationship to food security. Didier coulomb Director General IIR explained that as urbanization increases the distance of food from farms to the plates of consumers is increasing day by day which calls for a more efficient cold chain management. He pointed out three main problems regarding cold chain 1. Food Safety: this can be increased with the use of technologies like super chilling and super cooling. 2. Energy required for heating and cooling. He suggested using renewable energy for it. 3. Transport: Transportation is one of the most important part of the cold chain.
Daryl Boyce President ASHRAE while sharing his views said that while the cold chain is important for food security we must also take into account the environmental factor as to how it affects the environment and what must we do to prevent future deterioration of the environment from refrigeration. The global warming concerns and greenhouse gases emissions were highlighted. Daryl Boyce said that engineers at ASHRAE are working to develop technologies that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while keeping the efficiency of refrigeration intact. If the cold chain fails the food might not remain consumable by the time it gets to the customer and this can lead to food shortage and affect food security.
