The cooling industry is sometimes accused of being too focused on advancing the technology in their particular sector whilst overlooking the progress of those further down their supply chain.

We've have had the situation in Europe where a number of supermarkets are confidently trialing new techniques in carbon dioxide refrigeration or forced air display cabinets, while the food production factories that supply the food they sell are still creaking away on the most basic of refrigeration systems.

In fairness, it is something that a number of the more progressive retail end-users have set out to change in recent years, by taking a broader view of the cold chain – reasoning quite rightly that this affects their overall corporate social responsibility standing and that they are able to drive change by demanding higher standards.

The wider industry is now starting to bring this holistic view of the cold chain into sharper focus. One of the reasons is the F-Gas Regulation, coming into force from January, which will put more emphasis on reducing leakage and controlling HFCs, with a view to reducing global warming potentials and ultimately phasing down the gases.

This will naturally put more of an emphasis on improvement throughout the cold chain, not least because the regulation has increased focus on the responsibility of the end-user, the operator of the equipment, to ensure that the rules are complied with.

But perhaps the most compelling reasons to focus attention on the cold chain, from farm to fork, in the vernacular of one of the supermarkets, is the increasing dissatisfaction with food waste. This applies equally to the developed world, where it is seen largely as a financial and environmental burden, and in the developing world, where it is seen as a key to improved livelihoods and health.

The timeliness of this subject is borne out by the fact that the last fortnight has seen three different organizations in Europe focusing on improving cold chain activities. The fact that they have occurred separately and not as a coordinated approach to the subject perhaps speaks more about the lack of strong voice for the industry than anything else.

The scale of the problem in the developed world was underlined by U.K. government-supported campaign group WRAP, the Waste and Recycling Action Programme, which published a report saying the British population threw away around 2 million tons of food in 2012, as a result of the users noting the food was "not used in time."

Among the recommendations to improve this situation, were improving labeling to ensure that food storage is optimized by the customer, whether that means being refrigerated or frozen, but a key conclusion was that manufacturers and retailers should be "challenged to set longer shelf lives without compromising on food safety."

This naturally sets a real challenge to those in the cold chain as to whether their temperatures at the point of cold storage or distribution are higher than they need to be.

The twin challenges of advancing food storage and improving the environmental progress of cooling technology were among the key focuses of the second event, the IIR’s International Conference on Sustainability and the Cold Chain conference, held in London.

Here, a host of speakers delivered papers considering every aspect of the cold chain – ranging from natural refrigerants to phase-change materials; from aerofoil chiller shelving to use of heat pumps in stores; and from liquid desiccant technology to nanofluids.

One of the key questions, posited by Swedish researchers, was whether the temperature during the cold-storage link of the cold chain could be decreased to increase shelf-life further. Research is still ongoing, but results so far suggest that temperatures could be reduced safely by 2 degrees Celsius.

The third piece of work on the cold chain, from the U.K.’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers, set itself an even more ambitious scope. Called "A tank of cold: cleantech leapfrog to a more food secure world," the report calls for urgent action to encourage the roll out of a sustainable cold chain in the developing world, in order to prevent unnecessary food loss, help alleviate hunger and improve global food security.

The report estimates that about 25 percent of food wastage in the developing world could be eliminated with better refrigeration equipment. It quotes other key facts, such as that up to 50 percent of fruit and vegetables are lost in sub-Saharan Africa and India, while Tanzania sees 25 percent of all milk produced in the wet season end up as wastage, or 97 percent of Tanzania’s meat sold warm having never been chilled.

Last year, the institution found that up to 50 percent of food produced around the world is either lost or discarded.

Dr. Tim Fox, the IMechE’s Head of Energy and Environment, says, "Hunger, as well as illness from poor quality food, continues to be a significant problem in many parts of the world, and this is potentially set to get worse as global population rises. We currently produce enough food, but the tragedy is that too much of it is lost unnecessarily through spoilage in developing countries, where it is most needed, due to inadequate infrastructure and in particular a lack of cold and frozen supply chains."

The need, the institute believes, is to invest in the technology of the cold chain infrastructure. Fox says, “Investment in cold chain infrastructure driven by renewable energy is the key to preventing these losses, alleviating world hunger and improving health.It also presents farmers and rural communities with attractive business opportunities for development.”

One of its key recommendations amongst a range of technologies, from solar cooling to evaporative cooling, is an interesting one - to make use of the availability of cryogenic technology (liquid nitrogen) to supply both energy and cooling to developing countries, based on the logic that the gas distribution network is already more established than electricity supply.

One link in the cold chain – transport refrigeration – is already trialling the cryogenic technology, with work ongoing in the U.K. I will bring you details of that in a future "View from Europe."

The report notes that 70 percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa have no access to electricity at all, while 350 million people in India are located off-grid in rural locations.

Fox says, “Building on existing ambitions for electricity access and energy security, governments of these countries have a role to play in encouraging development of community renewable energy projects with energy storage to provide the cold/freezing needed for effective rollout of sustainable cold chains.”

Interestingly, the institution’s key recommendations, alongside government support and investment, are that development NGOs must support and incentivize aid recipients to develop sustainable cold chains using renewable energy and waste cold, and that the engineering community, particularly in the U.K, "should come together to define in detail the potential opportunities a joined-up cold economy presents for the developed and developing world."

Taken as a whole, it is clear that there is gathering momentum for the cold chain to be improved globally, both for environmental and humane reasons. It is also clear that it is the cooling industry that can play a major part in making that happen. It is surely time for those involved in development and policymaking to talk to those in cooling who have potential solutions.