UK food security at risk without stronger recognition of the cold chain

The Cold Chain Federation (CCF) launched a major new white paper at an event in Westminster, warning that growing pressures on the UK’s cold chain are increasing risks to food security, public health and economic resilience. The report, The Critical Link: A Resilience Strategy for Protecting UK Food Supply Against Growing Threats to the Cold Chain, highlights how risks including energy instability, cyber-attacks, climate impacts, labour shortages and global supply chain disruption are placing increasing pressure on critical food supply infrastructure.

Without stronger resilience planning and recognition of the cold chain’s essential role, the report warns that disruptions to the food supply could significantly affect food availability, affordability, and access to essential products, particularly for vulnerable communities.

Published by the Cold Chain Federation, the white paper sets out ten urgent recommendations designed to strengthen the resilience of the UK’s cold chain and help protect citizen access to essential food during periods of disruption, including recognising the cold chain as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).

The report highlights that the cold chain contributes £14bn to the UK economy annually, supports 184,000 jobs and contributes £3.7bn in tax revenue each year, while underpinning food supply across supermarkets, restaurants, schools, foodbanks, hospitals and home deliveries. The recommendations focus on strengthening preparedness and response planning, embedding cold chain considerations into future food security policy, and ensuring the sector is properly recognised within national resilience planning.

The launch event featured opening remarks from Phil Pluck, CEO of the CCF, and Tom Southall, Deputy CEO, who presented the report’s key findings, recommendations and the growing pressures facing the cold chain sector. A panel discussion chaired by Tom Southall also brought together Phil Pluck, Professor Tim Lang, Professor Emeritus of Food Policy at City St George’s, University of London, and Kristopher Gibbon-Walsh, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of FareShare and The Felix Project, to discuss the critical role of the cold chain in future food security and resilience planning.

Cold Chain Federation CEO Phil Pluck, says: “By failing to act on food resilience planning in the UK, the government are failing to protect life essential food supplies to the UK public. The world is growing more and more unstable, and with that instability comes very real risks to food supplies from both the UK and globally.

“The UK cold chain stores and distributes over 50% of all the food consumed in this country. In the absence of government leadership on this vital issue, the Cold Chain Federation have created a food resilience strategy to protect the UK public from the continuing threat of food disruption and supply.

“Having created the strategy, now is the time for the government to act, and fast.”

Tom Southall, Deputy CEO, Cold Chain Federation, adds: “The role of the cold chain is shamefully undervalued in UK food security and resilience policy. With threats to food supply increasing at a terrifying rate and other countries around the world looking at stockpiling essential products to keep citizens fed in an increasingly volatile world, there is a need for urgent action to recognise the role cold chain plays in society. The industry must be supported to manage future crises and to grow sustainably to meet the needs of a changing food system.”

The full whitepaper can be read here.