Every day, food travels a long journey from farms through warehouses, agro-processing facilities, and markets until it reaches our homes. Along the way, it relies on carefully controlled conditions to preserve quality and safety. One element makes this possible: temperature control.
This is the cold chain, a critical system that keeps food fresh, safe, and fit for consumption. Without it, much of the food we rely on would never reach our tables. By maintaining proper temperatures from production to consumption, cold chains reduce food loss and ensure more food reaches consumers safely. Reliable cold chains help reduce contamination risks, slow the growth of harmful microorganisms, and protect consumers’ health, echoing the World Food Safety Day theme, “From burden to solutions — safe food everywhere.”
But maintaining consistent temperatures remains a major challenge. Around 526 million tonnes of food are lost or wasted annually due to insufficient refrigeration. With over 700 million people still facing hunger, this is not just a technical challenge but a missed opportunity to protect food security.
A major constraint is energy access. Reliable cold chains depend on access to electricity, which remains limited in many developing countries and rural areas. The latest renewable energy solutions in agrifood systems offer new opportunities to turn this around, improving rural communities’ access to energy, strengthening the cold chain infrastructure, and minimizing food loss and waste all at the same time.
In Jamaica, an estimated 30-40% of crops such as tomatoes, onions, and leafy vegetables are lost due to poor post-harvest handling and a lack of cold storage. Through the recently approved Green Climate Fund (GCF) ADAPT Jamaica project, the Government of Jamaica is working with FAO to install energy-efficient, temperature-controlled storage.
Under the SEMED Food Security Package, FAO focused on potato, onion, and tomato value chains in Tunisia, Jordan, and Morocco, where post-harvest losses are high due to limited refrigeration infrastructure and poor storage practices. Findings show that solutions such as solar-powered refrigeration and cold rooms work even in off-grid and remote areas.
The benefits to rural communities go beyond reduced food waste; they have better access to reliable energy, reduced reliance on diesel generators, and over time lower operating costs. Integrating cold-chain investments with clean energy solutions can strengthen both food security and climate resilience.
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Thanks to effective refrigeration systems in Tunisia, post-harvest losses in the potato value chain were reduced to around 10%, compared with losses of up to 30% under inadequate storage conditions.
In both examples, solar energy is a key enabler of modern cold chains. Solar PV systems can power cold rooms, ice production machines, market storage, and even refrigerated transport — either independently or combined with batteries and backup systems. Bringing renewable energy closer to producers and markets reduces losses and dependence on fossil fuels.
Innovation, however, does not stop there. What was once food waste can become another energy solution. Organic residues from markets, agricultural production, and agro-processing facilities can, through anaerobic digestion, be converted into biogas — a renewable source of energy that can be used for electricity, as well as clean cooking.
By linking renewable energy-powered cold chain infrastructure with biogas production, we can deliver a double benefit. The result is a more resilient, sustainable, and energy-smart agrifood system.
The scale of the challenge remains significant, but so do the opportunities. As we mark World Food Safety Day under the theme “From burden to solutions – safe food everywhere,” investing in sustainable, energy-efficient cold chain solutions is essential. With the right vision and investment, we can reduce food loss, expand energy access, and build agrifood systems that are both climate-resilient and fit for the future.
