Australia's first advocacy group to improve compliance and standards in the handling of food at all levels of the cold chain has been established at a ground-breaking meeting in Queensland this month.
The inaugural session of the Australian Food Cold Chain Council (AFCCC) brought together a cross section of executives in manufacturing, food transport, refrigeration and cold chain services.
Against a mounting background of community pressure about the costs and environmental damage of food wastage, the AFCCC is seeking to find a solution, encourage innovation, compliance, waste reduction and safety across the Australian food cold chain.
Interim chair Mark Mitchell, a leading cold chain service provider with a cold chain research and validation facility, SuperCool Australia Pacific Pty Ltd, said the new council is not about promoting an industry – but changing it for the better.
'One of our priorities will be to apply whatever pressure is needed in industry and government to make sure the existing Australian standards for cold chain food handling are properly followed,” Mitchell said.
'There's lots of rhetoric in government programs, associations and among food handlers and suppliers about commitments to food waste reduction and cold chain compliance, but little, if nothing, is being done at any level about improving the cold chain, and ensuring that standards are followed.
“Australia's track record in efficient cold food handling, from farm to plate, is far from perfect.”
The interim directors of AFCCC are:
Stephen Elford ANZ general manager, Carrier Transicold
Mark Mitchell managing director, SuperCool Australia Pacific Pty Ltd
Peter Lawrence ANZ technical director, Thermo King
Kyle Hawker transport manager, Simplot Australia
Adam Wade national transport leader, Lion
Kevin ManfieldgGeneral manager products & markets, MaxiTRANS Australia Pty Ltd
Plus a nominated person representing the transport industry TBA
Food waste is a massive problem for Australia. On average, Australians waste 860 kg of food per person annually. It's not just the food, but this means that all inputs into food production like the water, soil and energy are also wasted.
An estimated five per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions come from food wastage.
Despite this, Mitchell said Australian industry is well placed to tackle this issue.
He said performance across the cold food chain can be improved with better equipment and handling processes as well as with improved monitoring and assessment to identify weaknesses.
In investigating the food cold chain in Europe, Deloitte estimated that for every unit of energy and dollar invested in expanding the food cold chain the return to investors was 10-fold.
“As an industry, as a society, we simply cannot afford to waste such an opportunity,” Mitchell said.
The AFCCC believes Australian industry has the tools, technologies and workforce capable of reducing food waste via the cold chain.
It is in that spirit that leading companies have signed up as inaugural members of the AFCCC.
The new advocacy group's first priorities will be contributing to both the development of the National Food Waste Strategy and becoming part of the CRC designed to address food waste and fraud.
Those interested in joining the AFCCC or learning more about it, can email AustralianColdChain@gmail.com.