Cold storage connects warehouses, refrigerated transport, household appliances and food-system outcomes. The statistics below distinguish observed inventories from estimates and forecasts, and identify the relevant population, geography and measurement period.
Key Cold Storage Statistics
The most useful cold storage figures span commercial inventories, food loss, household energy and modeled intervention outcomes:
- In the United States, all warehouses held 1,456,506 thousand pounds of natural cheese on January 31, 2024.
- In the United States, all warehouses held 1,133,440 thousand pounds of frozen poultry on January 31, 2024.
- In the United States, all warehouses held 247,588 thousand pounds of butter on January 31, 2024.
- In the United States, refrigerated warehouses held 1% less natural cheese on November 30, 2024 than in October.
- In the United States, frozen poultry stocks were 7% below November 2023 levels on November 30, 2024.
- Globally, an estimated 526 million tonnes of food production were lost through inadequate refrigeration in 2017.
- Globally, the 526 million tonnes attributed to inadequate refrigeration represented about 12% of food production in 2017.
- Developing countries could save an estimated 144 million tonnes of food annually in a modeled scenario reaching developed-country cold-chain infrastructure levels.
- Globally, 13.3% of food was lost between production and pre-retail stages in 2023.
- Northern America and Europe had a 10.0% post-harvest-to-pre-retail food-loss rate in 2023.
- Sub-Saharan Africa had a 23.0% post-harvest-to-pre-retail food-loss rate in 2023.
- In the United States, more than 120 million refrigerators were included in a cited DOE baseline.
- U.S. domestic refrigerators accounted for nearly 7% of home electricity consumption in the cited baseline.
- A representative U.S. household refrigerator was estimated to use 1.5–2.0 kWh of electricity per day.
- Globally, refrigeration-related food loss emitted an estimated 1 gigatonne of CO2-equivalent in 2017.
- Globally, the complete food cold chain was estimated at around 4% of greenhouse-gas emissions in a report published in 2022.
- A seven-food-type, seven-region model estimated up to 620 million metric tonnes of annual food loss associated with poor cold-chain infrastructure.
- A modeled optimized-cold-chain scenario could save more than 100 million metric tonnes of fruit and vegetable loss in South and Southeast Asia.
Contents
- U.S. cold storage warehouse stocks
- Global cold-chain scale and food-system context
- Food loss trends linked to storage and refrigeration
- Refrigerator and cold-storage energy data
- Cold-chain emissions and refrigerants
- Modeled cold-storage investment outcomes
U.S. Cold Storage Warehouse Stocks
The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service measures end-of-month inventories in commercial and public warehouses, generally targeting facilities storing products for 30 days or more. Its target population is more than 800 warehouses in the 48 states, and monthly responses generally cover 78% of U.S. storage capacity, with imputation for nonresponse; this is not a household freezer or consumption survey.
| Product or group | Stocks on January 31, 2024 | Measurement scope |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 247,588 thousand pounds | U.S. all warehouses |
| Natural cheese | 1,456,506 thousand pounds | U.S. all warehouses |
| Frozen eggs | 29,399 thousand pounds | U.S. all warehouses |
| Frozen chicken | 356,731 thousand pounds | U.S. all warehouses |
| Frozen turkey | 301,791 thousand pounds | U.S. all warehouses |
| Total frozen poultry | 1,133,440 thousand pounds | U.S. all warehouses |
Source: Cold Storage 2024 Summary. NASS stock estimates represent inventory, not retail availability or household consumption.
The monthly comparison also shows movement rather than a static capacity measure:
- Natural-cheese stocks in U.S. refrigerated warehouses on November 30, 2024 were 1% below October and 7% below November 2023.
- Butter stocks were 20% below the prior month on November 30, 2024 but slightly above the year-earlier level; the annual increase was not quantified.
- Frozen poultry stocks in U.S. freezers were 9% below October and 7% below November 2023 on November 30, 2024.
- Frozen fruit stocks in U.S. cold storage were 7% below October and 3% below November 2023 on November 30, 2024.
Source: Cold Storage (December 2024).
Global Cold-Chain Scale and Food-System Context
The UNEP–FAO cold-chain analysis frames refrigeration as part of food access, farm income and future supply. Its figures are global estimates or planning context, not a census of warehouses.
- In 2017, inadequate refrigeration was estimated to cause the loss of 526 million tonnes of food production globally, about 12% of global food production.
- Developing countries could save 144 million tonnes of food annually in a modeled counterfactual where they reached developed-country cold-chain infrastructure levels.
- The report identified 811 million hungry people in its 2020–2021 context and described more than 3 billion people as unable to afford a healthy diet in its 2020–2022 context.
- The report’s planning horizon said the world must feed an additional 2 billion people by 2050.
- Post-harvest food loss was estimated to reduce the income of about 470 million small-scale farmers by 15%, mainly in developing countries.
- About 14% of food produced for human consumption was estimated to be lost before reaching consumers in the report’s circa 2019–2022 context.
These figures describe food-system exposure and modeled opportunity, not the number of people or farms using cold storage. They also cover broader cold-chain and post-harvest conditions than warehouse refrigeration alone.
Source: Amid food and climate crises, investing in sustainable food cold chains crucial.
Food Loss Trends Linked to Storage and Refrigeration
The FAO Food Loss Index covers losses from maturity at the production site through storage, transport, wholesale and processing, ending before retail. It is therefore a useful context measure for cold storage, but not a refrigeration-only causal estimate.
| Geography or commodity group | 2015 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Global food loss | 13.0% | 13.3% |
| Northern America and Europe | 9.4% | 10.0% |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 22.1% | 23.0% |
| Fruit and vegetables | 23.2% | 25.4% |
| Meat and animal products | 13.9% | 14.0% |
| Roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops | 12.6% | 12.3% |
| Cereals and pulses | 8.5% | 8.4% |
Source: 12.3.1 Global food losses. The 2023 values are estimates for the stated regional or commodity scope, not facility measurements.
Fruit and vegetables had the highest listed commodity-group loss rate in 2023 at 25.4%, up from 23.2% in 2015. Meat and animal-product losses were 14.0% in 2023 versus 13.9% in 2015, while roots, tubers and oil-bearing crops declined from 12.6% to 12.3% and cereals and pulses from 8.5% to 8.4%.
Refrigerator and Cold-Storage Energy Data
DOE project materials describe a U.S. refrigerator baseline and a representative appliance, rather than every refrigerator, freezer or warehouse. The baseline included more than 120 million refrigerators, 12.44 million U.S. refrigerator shipments in 2019, 836 TBtu of energy use and 36.1 million short tons of annual CO2 emissions.
| Measure | Figure | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Installed refrigerators | More than 120 million | United States baseline |
| Shipments in 2019 | 12.44 million | United States |
| Home electricity share | Nearly 7% | U.S. domestic refrigerators |
| Energy use | 836 TBtu | U.S. refrigerator baseline |
| Annual emissions | 36.1 million short tons CO2 | U.S. refrigerator baseline |
For a representative U.S. household refrigerator, the project estimated daily electricity use at 1.5–2.0 kWh. Its engineering breakdown attributed 30%–40% of refrigerator losses to the compressor, 17.7% to defrost, 7%–13% to door opening, and about 14.3%–24.7% to on/off cycling.
Source: High-Efficiency Refrigerator with Cold Energy Storage Enabling Demand Flexibility. These are project-baseline and representative-appliance estimates, not a national survey of appliance behavior.
Cold-Chain Emissions and Refrigerants
Cold-chain emissions depend on the system boundary. Equipment, refrigerant use and the food lost when refrigeration is unavailable can be reported separately or together, so the figures below should not be added mechanically.
- Food loss and waste caused by lack of refrigeration emitted an estimated 1 gigatonne of CO2-equivalent globally in 2017, about 2% of total global greenhouse-gas emissions.
- Cooling and refrigeration accounted for an estimated 35% of HFC consumption in the global cooling sector in the UNEP–FAO report’s estimate.
- The complete global food cold chain was estimated to account for around 4% of total greenhouse-gas emissions when technology and refrigeration-related food loss were included.
- Food loss and waste overall accounted for an estimated 8%–10% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, a broader boundary than cold-chain emissions.
The complete-cold-chain estimate includes equipment emissions and food-loss emissions, while the separate 2% estimate concerns refrigeration-related food loss. The broader 8%–10% figure includes food-loss and food-waste causes beyond refrigeration.
Source: Amid food and climate crises, investing in sustainable food cold chains crucial.
Modeled Cold-Storage Investment Outcomes
A peer-reviewed study modeled seven food types across seven regions. Its results are counterfactual scenarios, so they indicate potential outcomes under specified assumptions rather than measured savings from one completed infrastructure project.
- Poor cold-chain infrastructure could be responsible for up to 620 million metric tonnes of food loss annually and 1.8 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent annually in the model.
- Fully optimized cold chains could save more than 100 million metric tonnes of fruit and vegetable loss in South and Southeast Asia.
- Fully optimized cold chains could avoid more than 700 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Localized supply chains could save more than 250 million metric tonnes of roots and tubers globally.
- In the modeled comparison, the localized roots-and-tubers scenario saved more than 100 million tonnes more than the optimized-cold-chain scenario.
- Localized supply chains could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from meat losses in industrialized regions by more than 300 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent.
The modeled results show why storage decisions are tied to geography, commodity type and supply-chain design. They should be read as scenario outputs, not guaranteed returns or observed post-investment performance.