Improving Food Sector Efficiency in Warmer Climates

UK scientists and engineers are developing ideas from STFC’s expertise in space science, cryogenics, thermal engineering and data science to tackle some of the problems of food deterioration in developing countries, where warmer climates and a lack of refrigeration can cause as much as 40% food wastage from crop harvest to food reaching the consumer. Funded by the STFC Food Network+, researchers have utilised participatory workshops and focus groups, which have drawn together farmers, retailers, academics, government officials and other invested parties to try to really understand the issues the sector faces.

Dr Sonal Choudhary, team leader at the University of Sheffield said: “There are a number of practical and logistical challenges for farmers in developing countries. Once they have harvested the fruit or vegetables, how can they keep it fresh before it reaches the consumer? They are often unable to afford refrigerated vehicles and rely solely on traditional methods such as transporting the produce through open trucks, rickshaws, motorcycles and even bicycles. Given the ambient temperature of 40-45oC in many parts of India, a good thermal insulation along with cryogenics technology could provide us with a viable option to reduce food loss from farm-to-fork and improve the cold chain efficiency.”

Dr Bryan Shaughnessy, head of the Thermal Engineering Group at STFC RAL Space and also a participant in this project commented: “We design systems to withstand the harsh extremes of temperature in space. By taking the technology and expertise we apply in developing instruments for use in space missions and instead looking at how to apply it in assisting in keeping food cooler in warm climates, I believe we have an opportunity here to find fairly low cost solutions to what can be a very expensive problem.”

The team is made up of both academia and industry, with representatives from Sheffield University Management School (SUMS), Hull University Business School (HUBS), STFC’s RAL Space and commercial cryogenics firm Cryox.