How would you feel if every ten days, the result of your work day was automatically thrown in the trash, no matter what you achieved that day? Food waste is a familiar topic to all of us, but the size of the problem never ceases to surprise. Every day and every single year a staggering 13% of food production is lost in the process.
Food waste leads to more than just food loss. It leads to the loss of other valuable resources such as labour, electricity and water, not to mention time. The scale and extent of the problem makes food loss not only a social problem but also a problem of business productivity. In this extremely competitive world, driven by small margins and processes, this uncontrolled loss is something that we should not tolerate. No modern company in the food industry should be able to afford losing a significant part of its food production and business to uncontrolled waste.
The cold chain can either slow down or enable the growth of the organization, the development decisions related to the company's cold chain should therefore be moved closer to the strategic core of the company.
From a global perspective, investing in the cold chain is an investment in saving lives. Food waste is especially high in developing countries as these countries lack refrigeration equipment. With modern refrigeration processes, we could feed 950,000,000 more people worldwide.*
Sustainability is at the heart of every industry's business agenda. All of us working in the refrigeration industry are being handed a real opportunity to leave a lasting and ethical mark on people’s lives. Feeding nearly a billion people would be an impressive example of ethical and economic sustainability.
As individuals, each of us can do our part, but as professionals, we can do more. But have we, as an industry, given up, or are we doing everything we can to solve the problem locally and even on a global scale? At Viessmann we have immense faith in you, our clients and the entire industry to make a big difference. with the know-how, smart innovations and resources we have together within our reach.
Food safety and food waste are an inseparable duo when it comes to tackling the bigger challenge. In today’s world shoppers are more demanding than ever. They want to buy fresh products and are also very interested in the origin of the food. Local food is becoming increasingly popular. And from the cold chain point of view, the closer the food comes the fewer points exist where the cold chain can be broken.
How then, in your everyday life, can you take care of the cold chain, improve food safety, decrease food waste and make sure that food supplies remain fresh? Cleaning and regular service prolongs the life of refrigeration equipment and also the shelf life of food products. If you’re interested in reading more about the topic, we have shared some tips on our hygiene blog post.
Besides cleaning and servicing equipment, food hygiene, such as temperature levels need to be closely monitored. It is important that operations are ensured to run smoothly without taking risks that can cause significant losses. Stores and food service organisations can use remote monitoring for controlling product temperatures and equipment performance in order to keep the cold chain unbroken. Read more about our remote in-store monitoring tool in Digital services.
If you are interested in learning more about how Viessmann Refrigeration contributes to food safety and an unbreakable cold chain to reduce food waste, contact our sales team and let’s have a chat!
*) Source: IIR - International Institute of Refrigeration “The Role of Refrigeration in Worldwide Nutrition” , March 2020.
