The International Institute of Refrigeration has produced a paper entitled The role of refrigeration in worldwide nutrition. It has some interesting figures on food storage-related losses and argues that more and better refrigeration should be deployed to help tackle food security.
Specifically it says that most solutions to meet growing food demand are based on the increase of agricultural output, which is vital, but probably insufficient without reaching a level that would irreversibly harm the environment. Therefore, a major focus should be the reduction of post-harvest losses, which average about 25% of the food production worldwide.
Regarding quality it says that refrigeration can reduce food spoilage and improve food safety. From a quantity point of view it says that current agricultural production is theoretically more than sufficient to meet the needs of the entireglobal population but 14% of the global population suffers from undernourishment. It says that reducing post-harvest losses would help improve this situation to a large extent.
It points out that about a third of the food produced globally requires preservation. In 2003, out of a total global food production (agricultural products, fish, meat products and dairy products) of 5500 million tonnes, only 400 million tonnes were preserved through refrigeration (chilled or frozen), although at least 1800 million tonnes required refrigeration and that this resulted in huge losses.
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