‘475 million tons of food being wasted every year’

Nearly 475 million tons of food is being wasted every year due to lack of preservation. With this amount of food, it is possible to meet needs of 15 percent of the world’s population or about 1 billion people for a year.

Speakers came up with information at a web seminar on the World Refrigeration Day. The local multi-national brand ‘Walton Group’ arranged the seminar. The theme of the seminar was ‘Cold Chain for Life’. It emphasizes the use of eco-friendly refrigerants and energy-efficient refrigeration products to protect the cold chain.

The web seminar went live on Walton’s official Facebook page on Friday (June 26) afternoon.

Dr. Aloke Kumar Mozumder, professor of Mechanical Engineering Department of Bangladesh University of of Engineering and Technology (BUET), was the keynote speaker of the seminar.

S M Zahid Hassan, Head of Policy, HRM and Admin of Walton Group, Taposh Kumar Majumder, Head of Walton Refrigerator R&D Department and Sandip Biswas, Head of Walton AC R&D department also spoke in the seminar. Walton’s senior operative director Anisur Rahman Mallik hosted the programme.

Since last year, June 26 has been celebrating as The World Refrigeration Day, the birthday of Lord Kelvin, the father of the Kelvin scale.

Walton Group, top electronics manufacturing company, has been organising a discussion programme in Bangladesh every year. This year seminar was held online to maintain proper social distance due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Dr. Aloke Kumar Mozumder said heating, ventilation and air conditioning technologies are related to food safety, food security and human health. It plays immense importance in the agricultural economy and modern life of people. It is important to keep the cold chain unharmed in order to maintain the effectiveness of vaccines and most of medicines for treatment.

He further said refrigerators and air conditioners are no longer luxury goods these days. It has become a necessity because of the benefits of technology. But every technology has some disadvantages. The more we can reduce it, the more mankind and the environment will benefit.

S M Zahid Hassan said Walton is always aware of environmental protection. Walton implemented the HFC Phase-Out project in 2019 in a joint venture with the Department of Environment of Bangladesh government and UNDP. Service experts are being trained in this regard regularly.

Taposh Kumar Majumder said Walton’s projects to curb global warming have reduced carbon emissions by 543,000 tons that saves 30 percent electricity. Walton is manufacturing refrigerators depending on the weather and food habits in Bangladesh. In addition, the use of inverter compressors, increasing the COP, changing the watts keeping the performance accurate, changing the insulation thickness and improving the refrigeration system are saving huge amount of electricity. The changes that Walton is bringing to the design and technology of refrigerators are making a huge contribution to global temperature control.

Sandip Biswas said Walton is always committed to keep the world cool by using eco-friendly refrigeration systems. In the meantime, we are using R410 and R32 in some models of air conditioners. Gradually we started using R290 refrigerants. These are more effective in preventing global warming and protecting weight level.

Anisur Rahman Mallik said the more energy efficient products we can make and use, the more environmental protection we will get. It maintain the balance of environment and bring good to mankind.


Dhaka/ZR/AKA