In this series, we will be setting foot into the two main marketplaces in Singapore namely, the supermarket and the wet market. We will attempt to highlight how these different retail spaces may take on different forms in contributing to the pollution caused by the food industry. This post’s focus lies in the supermarkets that we find in most neighbourhood shopping malls and void decks. Despite the variation in size and the type of goods they carry, the different operators like NTUC Fairprice, Sheng Shiong or Cold Storage share some properties in common that are unfortunately environmentally-unfriendly.
Recall the last time you stepped into one of these stores. You are probably greeted by neatly aligned rows of produce and shelves that are fully packed with goods in an air-conditioned environment. Apart from the regular air conditioning that cools the ambient temperature, there is also another contributor to this effect – the refrigeration systems. These systems store your fresh produce and food products that require a lower temperature to maintain the quality and freshness of these products for a longer period of time. This includes milk, vegetables, fruits and meat. In fact, almost half of the energy consumed by supermarkets can be traced back to the powering of these refrigerant systems (Tassou and Ge, 2008).
However, as we explored earlier, refrigerant systems have a high refrigerant charge leakage (Beshr et al., 2015). These refrigerant agents can include greenhouse gases like HFCs or harmful gases like ammonia that can be detrimental to human health in high dosage or high exposure. The leakage rate varies enormously with some supermarkets like Delhaize Serbia and Lion Super in Indonesia have extremely high recording rates close to or above 50% (Environmental Investigation Agency, 2015).
Another issue is that these systems are generally left open for display, exposed to the ambient air (Mylona et al., 2017). This would mean the cooling done in the system does not stay within the system, like in the refrigerators at home, but rather escapes into the surrounding air and is replaced with the warmer air from outside. This means these systems are consuming much more energy as compared to a closed system. On average, it is reported that closed refrigeration systems save up to 32% in energy consumption, which translates to lower energy cost for these supermarket chains, while also ensuring food safety by keeping the products in the optimal temperature (Environmental Investigation Agency, 2015).
So, the next time you walk into a supermarket, you might want to bring a sweater along because the refrigeration is not only trying to keep your food cold but also you. But all jokes aside, while we cannot directly control the decision making of these supermarket chains (at least most supermarkets chains in Singapore are attempting to cut their energy consumptions), as consumers, we can ensure that our practices try to limit the energy consumptions such as closing the chiller and freezer doors completely. Even a small gesture goes a long way.
Trailing off,
Jade and Ridzuan
References
Beshr, M., Aute, V., Sharma, V., Abdelaziz, O., Fricke, B. and Radermacher, R. (2015). A comparative study on the environmental impact of supermarket refrigeration systems using low GWP refrigerants. International Journal of Refrigeration, [online] 56, pp.154–164. Available at: https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0140700715000845 [Accessed 1 Oct. 2020].
Environmental Investigation Agency (2015). Chilling Facts VII: Are Europe’s supermarkets ready to quit HFCs? [online] Available at: https://eia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/Chilling-Facts-VII-FINAL-1.pdf [Accessed 2 Oct. 2020].
Mylona, Z., Kolokotroni, M., Tsamos, K.M. and Tassou, S.A. (2017). Comparative analysis on the energy use and environmental impact of different refrigeration systems for frozen food supermarket application. Energy Procedia, [online] 123, pp.121–130. Available at: https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S1876610217328059 [Accessed 1 Oct. 2020].
Tassou, S. and Ge, Y. (2008). Reduction of refrigeration energy consumption and environmental impacts in food retailing. Handbook of Water and Energy Management in Food Processing, [online] pp.585–611. Available at: https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/B978184569195050020X [Accessed 1 Oct. 2020].
