The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Between harvest and plate, food is dried, stored, cooled, processed, packed and moved. Each step can lose food to spoilage, pests and damage, and each can introduce hazards that make food unsafe. Perishable foods such as fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat and fish depend on an unbroken cold chain, which in turn depends on electricity and refrigerants. This page sets out where losses and safety failures arise, how they are measured, and who acts on the evidence.
Storage and cold chain · Supply corridor 2 · Week 31
| CS-01 | 67 | 4 | In band |
| CS-04 | 62 | 8 | Excursion |
| WH-02 | 79 | 19 | Ambient |
| CS-07 | 23 | 7 | In band |
Fig.Storage and cold chain. Design wireframe with placeholder names and illustrative values, not a record or a live system.
The cold chain is the unbroken sequence of refrigerated storage and transport that keeps perishable food safe from harvest to consumption. With drying, storage and processing it decides how much food is lost after harvest and whether food stays safe. It depends on electricity and refrigerants, so power failures and heat reach food safety directly.
Plains, deltas and basins, the corridors that carry food to ports, and how far each division sits from one, shown for India as an example geography for this subject.
Refrigeration, logistics and food safety. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Where drying, storage and transport are weak, losses concentrate on the farm and in storage, from moulds, pests and damage. Where they are strong, waste concentrates in retail and households. Each stage needs different measures.
Refrigeration needs continuous electricity or fuel. Outages, heatwaves beyond equipment design and gaps at transfer points let temperatures rise, and quality and safety degrade within hours.
Mycotoxins from poorly dried grain, pathogens from broken temperature control and chemical residues move with food through trade. One contaminated lot can reach many countries before it is traced.
Public and private stocks smooth supply between harvests and through shocks. Stocks that are too small, poorly managed or in the wrong place leave a country exposed when imports or harvests fail.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Post-harvest loss | The measurable quantity and quality of food lost between harvest and consumption, from handling, storage, pests and spoilage. |
| Food loss index | An index of food losses from production up to but not including retail, relative to a base period; SDG indicator 12.3.1a, reported by FAO. |
| Aflatoxin | A toxic and carcinogenic compound produced by moulds on stored grain and nuts, controlled by drying, storage and maximum limits set by Codex and national rules. |
| Temperature excursion | A period when a refrigerated product falls outside its required temperature range during storage or transport. |
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food loss index (SDG 12.3.1a) | index of loss percentage against a base period | annual | National loss surveys and models | ESTIMATED |
| Food waste per capita (SDG 12.3.1b) | kilograms per person per year | annual | Household, retail and food service measurement | ESTIMATED |
| Post-harvest loss by crop and stage | percent of harvested quantity | seasonal | Loss assessment surveys | ESTIMATED |
| Refrigerated storage capacity | cubic metres | annual | Industry and government inventories | REPORTED |
| Temperature excursions in storage and transport | hours outside the specified range | continuous | Data loggers | OBSERVED |
| Food safety notifications | count by hazard and product | weekly | Rapid alert systems | OFFICIAL |
| Aflatoxin exceedance in sampled grain | percent of samples above the applicable limit | per survey | Laboratory testing | OBSERVED |
| Public grain stock level | months of consumption | monthly | Reserve agency records | OFFICIAL |
The topic as a computational graph: named sources feed the methods, an evidence review gates the outputs, and the decisions stay with the authorities that hold them.
Fig. 02Nodes carry their type, two metric rows and a state; connectors show what feeds what; dashed frames name the owners; the timeline is the cadence. Design of the pipeline, not a record of a run.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| FAO Food Loss and Waste Database | Loss and waste estimates by commodity, stage and country | Free and open, attribution |
| UNEP Food Waste Index reports | Household, retail and food service waste estimates and the measurement method | Free, attribution |
| African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) | Cereal post-harvest loss estimates by country and province | Free, attribution |
| EU Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) | Notifications of food and feed hazards found in trade | Public records, terms per European Commission |
| WHO estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases | Illness and death from foodborne hazards by region | Free, attribution |
| World Bank Logistics Performance Index | Comparative performance of trade logistics by country | Free and open, attribution |
| National food safety authorities and reserve agencies | Inspection results, recalls and stock records | Public records, terms per agency |
Food Nexus prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Food safety authorities | Which hazards and products need sampling, border checks or recall readiness | Notification trends, laboratory exceedances and the trade routes of affected products |
| Agriculture and trade ministries, and reserve agencies | How large strategic stocks should be, where to hold them and when to release them | Stock levels against consumption, import lead times and shock scenarios |
| Cold-chain operators and logistics firms | Where backup power, insulation or redundancy is needed to keep product within specification | Temperature excursion records against outage and heat exposure |
| Development finance institutions | Which storage and cold-chain investments reduce loss where it is largest | Loss estimates by stage and commodity, with their method and uncertainty |
A harvest is only food security once it reaches people safely. Losses after harvest can be large for perishable produce and in places with limited storage, and a broken cold chain can turn a supply of food into a public health hazard. The resilience of this middle part of the chain is often less studied than production or consumption, which makes it a frequent hidden weakness.
Losses come from biology, infrastructure and organization together.
Moisture, heat and time drive mould, rot and insect damage. Some moulds produce toxins that make grain unsafe even when it looks sound.
Refrigeration needs continuous power; transport needs roads, ports and fuel. A grid failure can spoil perishable stocks within hours to days.
Delays at markets and borders, poor packaging and weak handling practices add loss at every step.
Measure losses at stages of the chain. Methods differ, so estimates are hard to compare across studies.
Sensors record cold chain performance; data are often held privately by operators.
Outbreak and contamination data show consequences, but under-reporting is common.
Logistics and facility location models built with optimization and operations research assess capacity and redundancy, within the limits of their input data.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.