Leading experts from Australia’s cold chain sector have formed the first advocacy group for the industry, the Australian Food Cold Chain Council (AFCCC).
The AFCCC was formed on 7 August 2017 following a meeting in Queensland that saw representatives from the manufacturing, food transport, refrigeration and cold chain services industry get together to discuss innovation, compliance and waste reduction.
Improving Australia’s cold food handling and reducing food waste will be a priority for the new group, according to AFCCC interim chair Mark Mitchell, who’s also the managing director of SuperCool Australia Pacific.
“The new [AFCCC] is not about promoting an industry – we want to change the industry for the better,” he said in a statement released 11 August. “One of our priorities will be to apply whatever pressure is needed in industry and in government to make sure the existing Australian standards for cold chain food handling are properly followed.
“Performance across the cold food chain can be improved with better equipment and handling processes as well as with improved monitoring and assessment to determine where the weaknesses lie.”
Joining Mitchell as interim directors are Stephen Elford, general manager Australia New Zealand of Carrier Transicold; Peter Lawrence, technical director ANC of Thermo King; Kyle Hawker, transport manager of Simplot Australia; Adam Wade, national transport leader of Lion; and Kevin Manfield, general manager products and markets of MaxiTrans Australia.
