Could adjusting our setpoint Temperatures affect the environment?

The industry standard set point temperatures are wasting money and harming the environment as seen by 20+ trials that have taken place with major operators across the industry.

The frozen food temperature set point of -18c was established as an industry standard a century ago, but with very little knowledge of the economic and environmental impact that it would have on the industry.

By lowering the setpoint by -3c to -15c could have a huge impact on the industry. At COP28, DP World highlighted that this small change in set point can cut annual emissions by 17.7 million tonnes of CO2.That number of emissions being cut is like taking 3.8 million cars off the road!

In addition, dropping the set point to -15c can reduce freezer energy consumption by 10/11% without any noticeable impact on product safety, texture, taste, or nutritional value. At Seven Refrigeration our temperature-controlled storage units can run at -15c at ease with our NaturaLINE machines. These NaturaLINE units run on natural gases saving the environmental impact of running them as we do have other unit types available.

The effect of changing setpoint does not just apply to frozen temperatures it can apply to the chilled setpoint temperature too. By changing your chilled set point this can have a massive impact on environmental and economic changes. Increasing the chilled setpoint from +3c to +5c could save a staggering 36% reduction in operating costs. This reduction can jump to a massive 70% savings with a setpoint of 7c.

These benefits are too significant for the industry to ignore. Optimising our setpoints for frozen and chilled products can help reduce operational costs, cut emissions, and reduce energy consumption.