HOW COULD A LOWER TEMPERATURE IN THE COLD CHAIN AFFECT FOOD WASTE?

摘要

This paper presents the results of an investigation into where and how food waste at the retail and consumer levels would be affected by a lower temperature in the cold chain for chilled food. A lower temperature means that shelf life will be longer. If, for example, milk, ready meals and sandwich spreads were stored at 4°C instead of 8°C, it would extend product shelf lives by up to weeks in some cases. A lower temperature in the cold chain could allow food producers to extend the expiry date on their products. Longer shelf life, combined with extended expiry date on products, could reduce the in-store waste of foods having a date indication. A lower temperature in the cold chain in combination with extended shelf life marking could reduce food waste for those consumers who do not eat foods past their expiry dates. A project to study the effects on food waste by lowering the temperature in the cold chain was performed by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden (Jensen and Bath, 2013). The project was initiated by the Swedish National Food Agency and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to a literature review, the project included two parts presented in this paper: an analytical model and an interview study. Producers and store managers have given their views on how they think a lower temperature in the cold chain would affect the amount of waste of chilled foods. If the results indicate that the temperature in the cold chain should be lower, further work should be carried out to investigate where and how the temperature should be reduced. Investment costs should also be considered, along with other potential working areas, such as improved knowledge. This paper discusses these issues.