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A Study of Waste in the Cold Food Chain and Opportunities for Improvements

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A Study of Waste in the Cold Food Chain and Opportunities for Improvements A study of waste in the cold food chain and opportunities for improvement Prepared for: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment and Refrigerants Australia Phone Web +61 3 9592 9111 www.expertgroup.com.au Table of Contents 1 Executive summary ........................................................................................................... 5 2 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 6 3 Scope of this study ............................................................................................................. 7 3.1 Refrigerated cold food chain .............................................................................................................................. 8 4 Food sector profiles ........................................................................................................... 9 4.1 Fruit and vegetable sector ............................................................................................................................. 9 4.1.1 Supply chain profile ...................................................................................................................................... 9 4.1.2 Role of the cold food chain ......................................................................................................................... 9 4.2 Meat sector ..................................................................................................................................................... 11 4.2.1 Supply chain profile .................................................................................................................................... 11 4.2.2 Role of the cold food chain ....................................................................................................................... 12 4.2.3 Sources of waste ........................................................................................................................................... 13 4.3 Seafood sector................................................................................................................................................ 14 4.3.1 Supply chain profile .................................................................................................................................... 14 4.3.2 Role of the cold food chain ....................................................................................................................... 15 4.3.3 Sources of waste ........................................................................................................................................... 15 4.4 Dairy and egg sectors .................................................................................................................................. 16 4.4.1 Supply chain profile .................................................................................................................................... 16 4.4.2 Role of the cold food chain ....................................................................................................................... 17 4.4.3 Sources of waste ........................................................................................................................................... 17 5 Sub-par practices and opportunities for improvement ................................................... 18 5.1 Sub-par practices........................................................................................................................................... 18 5.1.1 Fruit and vegetable sector specific practices .................................................................................... 18 5.1.2 Commonly observed failures with all food types ............................................................................. 19 5.1.3 Lack of insulation specifications ............................................................................................................ 20 5.2 Opportunities for best practice improvements ..................................................................................... 21 5.2.1 All food sectors ............................................................................................................................................. 21 5.2.2 Example opportunities by food sector .................................................................................................. 22 5.2.3 Australian Cold Chain Guidelines ........................................................................................................ 22 5.2.4 Product temperatures and use of thermometers............................................................................... 25 5.2.5 Transport refrigeration .............................................................................................................................. 26 5.2.6 Walk-in cold rooms ..................................................................................................................................... 26 5.2.7 Cold storage facilities ................................................................................................................................ 26 5.3 Improve product longevity ......................................................................................................................... 26 6 Future research ............................................................................................................... 28 7 Taxonomy, data collection, methodology ........................................................................ 28 7.1 Major food sectors, categories and sub-categories ............................................................................. 30 7.2 Methodology .................................................................................................................................................. 30 References ............................................................................................................................. 31 8 Appendix: A: Equipment taxonomy, energy and greenhouse intensity ........................... 33 8.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 33 8.2 Refrigerant bank and usage........................................................................................................................ 37 8.3 Energy consumption .................................................................................................................................... 38 9 Appendix B: Supply chain maps and assumptions .......................................................... 40 9.1 Supply chain maps ....................................................................................................................................... 40 9.2 Food waste assumption and factors ......................................................................................................... 43 9.3 Agriculture and foodstuff production and export data sources and notes .................................... 46 Page 2 of 48 List of Figures Figure 1: Food Waste Baseline Study estimate of food waste generation by sector, 2016-17. .......................6 Figure 2: HCFC and HFC refrigerant bank excluding domestic refrigeration by mass in tonnes and percent, in the refrigerated cold food chain. ..................................................................................................37 Figure 3: Electricity consumption across the cold chain, incl. domestic refrigerators, in GWh per annum. .38 Figure 4: Fruit and vegetable supply chain and food waste boundary attributed to commercial refrigeration. ...............................................................................................................................................................40 Figure 5: Meat sector supply chain and food waste boundary attributed to commercial refrigeration. .........41 Figure 6: Seafood sector supply chain and food waste boundary attributed to commercial refrigeration. ....41 Figure 7: Dairy sector supply chain and food waste boundary attributed to commercial refrigeration. ........42 Figure 8: Total food waste rates in the supply chain and the portion attributed sub-par practices. ...............44 Figure 9: Comparative scale of emission intensity based on kg CO2-e/kg of food waste. .............................46 List of Tables Table 1: Summary of agriculture and foodstuff dependent on refrigeration. ...................................................7 Table 2: Main types of fruit and vegetable produce. .......................................................................................9 Table 3: Main types of meat produce. ...........................................................................................................11 Table 4: Main types of seafood produce. .......................................................................................................14 Table 5: Main types of dairy produce and eggs. ............................................................................................17 Table 6: Cold food chain failures. ..................................................................................................................20 Table 7: Refrigerated cold food chain taxonomy. ..........................................................................................34 Table 8: Refrigerated
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