Riccardo Liguori The University of Michigan has developed a food loss estimator to assess how better access to the cold chain can reduce food loss (along with greenhouse gas emissions)
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While 800 million people suffer from hunger and 9 million die due to lack of food, one-third of the food we produce goes to waste. This wasted food contributes to around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
A study published in Environmental Research Letters has developed a food waste estimation tool. This tool assesses how better access to cold chain logistics (refrigeration) can impact food loss and related climate emissions for seven food types (grains, fish and seafood, fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, oilseeds and legumes, roots and tubers) across seven regions (Europe, including Russia, Industrialized Asia, Latin America, North Africa and Central Asia, North America and Oceania, South and Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa).
According to the study, an inadequate cold chain can lead to food loss amounting to 620 million metric tons annually.
Conversely, developing more localized and less industrialized food supply chains could save more food than optimized cold chains.
“Optimizing the global cold chain can help us save a lot of food, feed millions of hungry people, and protect our climate,” said the study’s authors, researchers from the University of Michigan.
The complexity of food waste
Food waste has become such a complex issue that it seems insurmountable: with approximately 1.3 billion metric tons of food wasted in 2023, it is estimated that by 2030, we will waste 2.1 billion metric tons of food annually. However, the researchers from the University of Michigan suggest that improving the global cold chain can reduce global food waste by 50%, benefiting the climate as well.
“Nearly half of the food waste, around 620 million metric tons, could be eliminated with fully refrigerated food supply chains worldwide. At the same time, these fully refrigerated supply chains, or ‘cold chains,’ could reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to food waste by 41% globally“, the study’s authors explain.
The study’s estimation tool provided three key insights. First, less industrialized regions can achieve high levels of food loss prevention.
“South and Southeast Asia record the highest absolute food losses but the lowest per capita losses. These two areas could achieve a 45% reduction in food loss and a 54% decrease in associated emissions under an optimized refrigeration scenario,” the study’s authors state.
“Sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, presents both the highest absolute and per capita food loss emissions, with significant opportunities to reduce food loss by 47% and emissions by 66% under optimized refrigeration conditions,” they added.
Second, in terms of food type, meat represents only 10% of global food waste but accounts for over 50% of emissions related to food waste.
Lastly, highly localized and well-managed food systems can be even more effective than optimized global cold chains in reducing food waste.
This means that focusing on creating efficient local cold chain networks can drastically reduce food losses and the resulting emissions.
A necessary clarification
According to the study’s authors, their estimation tool is highly useful for everyone involved in the food supply chain, such as farmers, food suppliers, and retailers, who can use it to estimate food losses, identify gaps in their refrigeration systems, and optimize them. Similarly, governments and NGOs can use the model to track and reduce food losses, thereby mitigating hunger and climate change.
However, the study accounts for emissions associated with food waste but does not consider the emissions that would result from operating an enhanced cold chain network. The researchers are also uncertain about how an improved refrigeration system will impact the nutritional quality of food. Therefore, the goal is to ensure that cold chains are improved and managed sustainably.
