Energy is a major cost in all parts of the food industry. Recent increases in energy costs and concerns about global warming are encouraging the food industry to optimise their use of energy.  Energy reduction can best be achieved by understanding the interaction between the energy inputs (refrigeration or cooking plant, heating, lighting etc) and the food. Therefore it is important to initially understand the food processing requirements and how these could be altered whilst still maintaining products at safe temperatures.

Audits of energy usage in food plants can be carried out at several levels, from a simple analysis of the energy against equipment usage and ambient conditions, to entire plant surveys to fully optimise systems and machinery. In many cases these will identify areas where energy can be saved that do not require investment in expensive new equipment or machinery.

Some energy savings can be made merely by rescheduling of operations. RD&T have modelliing expertise and software tools to allow the energy effects of changing working practices such as chill room loading/unloading patterns and different door protection regimes to be evaluated.