The cold chain is vital for reducing food waste and ensuring food
safety. The installation, monitoring and maintenance of cold chain equipment
would play a vital role in ensuring healthy food quality and reducing losses
and pollution. The objective of this work was to evaluate the current status of
commercial cold chain equipment primarily, and secondarily to determine
elements associated with the management of cold chain equipment.
To achieve this, a cross-sectional descriptive study began on
August 7 to September 23, 2023, covering 84 commercial establishments including
supermarkets, delicatessens and butchers, food, and butchers in the city of
Lubumbashi. The data were collected by interview and direct cross-sectional
observation on the evaluation of the conservation of frozen products (fish, meat,
and cold meats) on the market in the city of Lubumbashi. To assess the quality
of all included studies, two analysts independently assessed the quality of the
included data by checking the completeness of the inclusion criteria.
The results show us that the structures using cold chains are food
stores, butchers, delicatessens, and supermarkets and sometimes in a certain
combination. All these structures mainly use freezing and sometimes
refrigeration to maintain the cold chain. Equipment such as cold chain
freezers, quick freezers, refrigerated cabinets and refrigerators and insulated
boxes are all the equipment used for this purpose, powered by the supply of
electric current throughout and often using generators and rarely solar panels
in the event of an outage of electric current. Thus, these structures operate
in an environment rich in temperature fluctuations leading to rapid
deterioration of food, waste, responsible for 4% of global greenhouse gas
emissions GHG, the equivalent of the contribution of the entire African
continent to climate change. Reducing food waste requires the commitment of all
countries in the world to combat food waste, must take measures in terms of
laws, systems and policies in order to develop an appropriate strategy for reducing
food loss and waste is one of the important issues related to sustainable
development.
This work demonstrated the importance of the quality of cold chain
equipment on food quality and its impact on the carbon footprint, a situation
observable from the production, transport, storage, and elimination of food.
The use of solar energy would be a solution in this process because it produces
less greenhouse gases.
Author(s)
Details
Kasamba
Ilunga Eric
Faculty of Medicine, University of Lubumbashi, DR Congo.
Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/raeges/v7/1391
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