Thanks for visiting the website of the Australian Food Cold Chain Council.

Please be advised that the Council was disbanded on 31 August 2024.

Formed in 2017 by a group of senior executives representing manufacturing, transport, refrigeration and the environment, this not-for-profit company developed a range of tools, codes of practice and training programs to help those responsible for managing the country's chilled and frozen foodstuffs to reach higher levels of compliance to world standards.

The AFCCC was responding to the cold chain's contribution to the estimated annual $36.6billion cost to Australia's economy from food loss and waste.

Despite our best efforts and the support of other like-minded groups, our initiatives have been largely ignored, and we now realise that perhaps the AFCCC was ahead of its time.

We applaud those companies which are doing their utmost to individually improve their own compliance standards in the cold chain.

So while the industry continues to be governed by the economic imperatives to move a massive variety of cold food products across a vast continent efficiently at the best possible price, there is not yet a need for an advocacy and training entity such as the AFCCC.

Australia has world standard refrigeration equipment, up to date monitoring technologies and appropriate equipment standards that, by and large, are ignored because there are no mandates to ensure that those handling our food are competent to do so.

The AFCCC tried its best, and now admits that it is not big enough, and does not have enough clout or mandatory support to make a difference. We have advised government authorities of our position, hoping that it might trigger government interest and action to correct this critical industry on which every Australian relies for nutrition and health.

The AFCCC thanks those organisations which have worked with us to improve the cold chain landscape.

This website will be maintained for at least one more year until August 2025, and will continue to offer the resources, many of which are free and downloadable from this website, to those in the industry who seek to better their food handling processes. Our lines of communication are now closed. Note that the online training programs including the Benchmarking Tool and the Thermometer online training are temporarily suspended, and negotiations are continuing with other providers working in cold chain compliance.

Mark Mitchell Founding Chairman, AFCCC