So, Fisher & Paykel and the University of Otago have teamed up to help reduce that amount, by holding fridge manufacturers accountable in terms of designing refrigerators which meet higher food care standards.
Otago food science researchers Prof Indrawati Oey and Prof Phil Bremer are part of the long-term collaboration, which has put them at the centre of an international working group of about 50 members from 16 countries, representing appliance manufacturers, consumer organisations, national standards organisations, universities and the International Electrochemical Committee (IEC).
Prof Oey said the amount of food wastage around the globe was concerning, and it served as great inspiration to create and validate food preservation and storage standards across a wide range of measurements.
She said 1.3 billion tonnes of food could feed several countries for a year.
‘‘I feel that it is my task to optimise the performance of [refrigeration] equipment, and make food preservation better — especially at this time when food security and safety is becoming a major issue.
‘‘And I think because food cost is getting higher and higher, we need to help consumers to preserve the quality during storage, so that things like fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, milk, maybe dairy or eggs, stay high quality and safe for longer.’’
Prof Oey said manufacturers were now designing refrigerators and freezers to consume less energy, which could affect their performance.
‘‘We need to make sure that while we are reducing the energy consumption, we can still keep the quality of the food product that we store, safe and high quality.
‘‘We need to have a protocol or procedure to standardise or to assess the performance of refrigerators and freezers.
‘‘To do that, we need to internationally agree how we assess them so that we can compare from one refrigerator to another.’’
She said producing a complete set of standards was a long process.
So far, the group had released a standard around the performance of fridge fruit and vegetable bins, which aim to keep the contents crisp and prevent weight loss.
‘‘The loss of the weight from fruit and vegetables that we store — we can assess them now across the world with the same standard.
‘‘In the refrigerator, usually you use low temperature, which sinks the moisture levels inside the fridge and it becomes drier.
‘‘If you do not keep the humidity inside high, you will actually dry up the fruit and vegetables. But if you keep the humidity too high, then it can prompt microorganism growth.
‘‘So, we need to assess them, how they actually perform.’’
She said the team was also investigating standards involving colour, vitamin content, microbial growth and freezer performance.
She believed the standards would eventually be used to show fridge-buying customers how effective a produce bin was at keeping their lettuce crunchy, or how well meat should be frozen to get the juiciest steak when it was cooked.
The ultimate aim was to create standards that were achievable and consistent around the globe.
‘‘Usually, if you buy a refrigerator, they always have information around the performance.
‘‘The standards stop fridge manufacturers from making unfounded claims about how good their fridge is.’’
