Top chefs serve up message about cooling

To celebrate World Refrigeration Day on June 26, United Nations Environment Program OzonAction, Chefs4thePlanet, and Global Food Cold Chain Council are partnering to explain cooling’s essential role in protecting human health and the planet. The Cooling Keeps Food Fresh campaign will describe why cooling is necessary for food safety and how it supports nutritious diets that sustain our health, help reduce food loss and waste, and protect the environment.

Central to the campaign is the support of Chefs4thePlanet – an international community of chefs from around the world who are concerned about the impact of food on our planet and our health. Anne Le More and Sebastien Ripari are the organisation’s co-founders.

“At a time when each day we increasingly exceed our planetary boundaries, and agriculture produces about a quarter of global greenhouse emissions, feeding 10 billion people in 2050 is requiring the systemic transformation of our food system,” says Le More. “Chefs as role models and influencers have a key role to play.”

Leading chefs from around the world have signed on to the campaign. They will describe how cooling is necessary for their locally inspired cuisine. The chef’s recipes will be accompanied by tips educating consumers on the cooling choices they can make in their home to save money, prolong the life of products, and understand how food waste and loss contribute to climate change.

“Bacteria exist everywhere in nature,” say the campaign organisers. “They are in the soil, air, water, and in the foods we eat.

“In favourable temperatures, they grow rapidly, increasing in numbers to the point where some types of bacteria found in food can cause illness. Bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 4.4 and 60°C, the ‘danger zone’. Some double in number in as little as 20 minutes. But the cooling provided by refrigerators in our homes and restaurants slows bacterial growth, thereby keeping foods safe after they are brought home from the market or stored after preparation.”

The campaign is also highlighting the vital role of the cold chain in preventing food waste. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the contribution of food waste emissions to global warming is almost equivalent to global road transport emissions. If it were a country, food waste would be the third largest emitting country in the world.

“Industry can facilitate the reduction of food waste and its negative environmental impact by promoting greater access to food preservation technology and promoting the development and utilization of cost-effective, energy-efficient equipment with reduced environmental impact,” says Juergen Goeller, Co-Chair of the Global Food Cold Chain Council and Director of Regulatory Affairs for Carrier Refrigeration.

“A sustainable food cold chain will be an economic, social and environmental net-positive.”

The campaign ties in with the theme of World Refrigeration Day 2022: Cooling Matters.

“Cooling matters,” says Steve Gill, World Refrigeration Day founder, “and keeping food safe is one example of that. Cooling is at the very heart of modern life. And the importance of cooling to the global food chain and sustaining human life on our planet cannot be overestimated.”