Morrisons is testing out raising the temperature of its freezers by 3C in the first move by a UK supermarket to depart from a long-held industry standard, in order to save energy and money.
The Bradford-based chain said it would increase the temperature on appliances in 10 of its stores to -15C from -18C, the industry standard set almost 100 years ago and left unchanged.
The 10 stores taking part in the trial are geographically spread across the country, from Scotland to the south of England, to test the concept in areas with different weather patterns and supply routes before an intended wider rollout.
The move is backed by the owner of the UK’s biggest frozen foods brand, Birds Eye, which is part of the Move to Minus 15°C Coalition of companies which also includes the logistics firms DP World and Blue Water, and the bacon seller Danish Crown.
Pressure is growing for an industry shift. A report for the Cop28 climate crisis conference last year, by academics at the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University, forecast that an increase of just 3C in freezer temperatures across global supply chains could save the equivalent of 8.6% of the energy consumed in the UK and reduce carbon emissions equivalent to taking 3.8m cars off the road.
A recently published 18-month study by the owner of Birds Eye, Nomad Foods, with the food science and technology organisation Campden BRI, found turning freezers to -15C from -18C can reduce energy consumption by between 10% and 11%, without any noticeable impact on the safety, texture, taste or nutritional value of food.
Morrisons, which has been struggling to compete in the grocery market since a debt-fuelled takeover nearly three years ago, said the cost savings could help it keep down prices for shoppers and contribute to its ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions from its own operations by 2035.
Ruth McDonald, the corporate services director at Morrisons, said: “The standard temperature for the storage and transport of frozen food today looks like it is simply a convention from nearly 100 years ago.
“We now have vastly better freezers and modern technology and monitoring that gives us a precise picture of frozen food temperatures throughout the supply chain.”
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Thomas Eskesen, the chair of the Move to Minus 15°C Coalition, which Morrisons has now joined, said: “To have a large UK retailer like Morrisons on board is an important step forward.”
Stefan Descheemaeker, the chief executive of Nomad Foods, said: “We know from our study that increasing the temperature at which we store frozen food can significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Establishing an end to end frozen industry alliance, to put our findings into action, will be the key to unlocking widespread change.”