Current Status and Future Outlook of Refrigeration Systems Employed in Norwegian Vegetable Storages

Approximately one-third of food produced is lost or wasted (FAO, 2022), and the current food system is a major user of energy, natural resources, and accounts for nearly one-third of global GHG emissions (Crippa et al., 2021). Refrigeration plays a vital role in mitigating losses of perishable food, such as vegetables, in the post-harvest storage and distribution stage. This paper describes the structure of the Norwegian vegetable and potato storages, with a particular focus on refrigeration. A survey was conducted among 290 producers, operating a total of 594 storages, representing 37% of the stored volume of vegetables. Only 48% of the surveyed storages employ refrigeration systems (covering 59% of the stored volume). R134a and R400-refrigerants are most common (55%), albeit a trend towards natural refrigerants are observed for newer systems. A mismatch between required and installed cooling capacity was observed for the surveyed storages. Knowledge on best practice has been shared with stakeholders.