Chapter 22 - Challenges with food waste management in the food cold chains

Abstract

Temperature is considered as the most important factor affecting the quality of foods. Improper temperature control and settings in the food cold chain can accelerate the deterioration of food quality, which can leverage the generation of food losses and food waste. Review of literature in this chapter showed that there is a high rate of temperature abuse in the food cold chain, which can be caused by many factors such as inadequate performance of equipment, improper handling, and poorly implemented food safety or food logistics practices. The improvement of cold chain performance, data transparency, real-time temperature monitoring, and reporting is now enabled thanks to technological advancements. However, such technologies have not been massively adopted, adapted, and implemented. In addition, there is also an urgent need for adequate legal requirements and guidelines to govern the time–temperature management in the cold food chain with consideration of the monitoring and measurement of cost, energy use, economic risk, social impact, environmental issues, and sustainability.