Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA: University of Michigan researchers have found nearly half of global food waste could be prevented with better refrigeration, saving food and cutting climate impact.
About a third of the food produced globally each year goes to waste, while around 800m people suffer from hunger, according to the United Nations’ (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). However, a new University of Michigan study says that nearly half of the food waste, about 620m metric tonnes, could be eliminated by fully refrigerated food supply chains worldwide.
At the same time, fully refrigerated cold chains could cut food waste-related emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases (GHG) by 41% globally, according to the study.
Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia have the greatest potential for reductions in both food losses and related emissions through increased cold-chain implementation, according to the study.
South and Southeast Asia could see a 45% reduction in food losses and a 54% fall in associated emissions under an optimised refrigeration scenario. Sub-Saharan Africa has tremendous opportunities for both food loss (47 percent) and emissions (66%) reductions under optimised refrigeration conditions, the study shows.
And, in many situations, developing more localised, less industrialised ‘farm-to-table’ food supply chains may yield food savings comparable to optimised cold chains, according to the study.
“I was surprised to find the scale of our opportunity for reducing food loss and waste globally,” said study lead author, Aaron Friedman-Heiman, a master’s student at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability and Ross School of Business.
“Approximately half of the roughly 1.3bn tonnes of food that goes to waste annually can be solved through food supply chain optimisation.”
The other author is Shelie Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability and at the College of Engineering.
“Although cold chain infrastructure is rapidly increasing worldwide, an optimised cold chain will likely develop at different rates and in different ways across the globe,” Miller said. “This analysis demonstrates that, while increased refrigeration should lead to improvements in both food loss and greenhouse gas emissions associated with food loss, there are important tradeoffs associated with cold chain improvements by food type and region.”
The researchers emphasise that the actual amount of greenhouse gas emissions savings will depend on the efficiency of cold chain technologies and the carbon intensity of local electrical grids, since climate emissions associated with refrigeration can be significant.
