Optimising cold logistics for vegetables in India: a carbon footprint-based model selection approach

Abstract

This study delivers a detailed life‐cycle assessment of carbon emissions across the post‐harvest cold chain for vegetables in India, encompassing six key stages: production, pre‐cooling, refrigerated transport, cold storage, retail display, and consumer storage. Leveraging primary data collected between 2024 and 2025 including farm‐level energy audits in southern India, operational records from packing and pre‐cooling facilities, logs, electricity consumption bills from cold‐stores, and household refrigeration. we calculate greenhouse‐gas emissions in kg CO2-equivalent per kilogram of produce.