Minimizing food waste by improving storage conditions in household refrigeration

- Current household food storage conditions are suboptimal for many fresh products.
- Multiple temperature compartments in refrigerators can extend the shelf life of food.
- Optimized refrigerator design can be a useful tool to reduce food waste.
- Existing legislation on energy labelling of refrigeration appliances requires revision.

A considerable amount of food is discarded by households in the EU. Many publications addressing the issue thus far, propose changes of consumer behaviour as the solution to fighting food waste. This article explores the possible contribution of technology, in particular, improvements in storage conditions in household refrigerators towards combating food waste. An optimized refrigerator design better serving its purpose of food preservation can theoretically reduce food waste due to quality loss and spoilage. In the current market, the functionality of refrigeration appliances is only indirectly determined by the quality of food preservation. Actual demand is driven by habits, available physical space, perception of size needed, price and -identified as a main driver in several market surveys- the EU's energy label rating. As a result, 85% of consumers choose an appliance that, apart from the freezer compartment, only has one compartment for perishable fresh food (typically at 4 °C). This article argues that the 4 °C is a compromise: The real optimal preservation temperature, depending on the type and condition of the fresh food products, lies between −1 °C and +17 °C. At those optimal temperatures the 'shelf life' can be increased by a factor of two to three and thus the chance of food spoilage can be significantly reduced. Subsequently, the article tries to quantify the EU-wide potential impact of optimised household refrigeration, as much as current data availability allows.