India: New Packhouse Design Guidelines to support...

The “cold chain” refers to the various stages that a refrigerated product passes through from harvest to human consumption ^[1]. At the entry point or first mile of the cold chain, freshly harvested produce undergoes pre-cooling to remove “field heat” as well as aggregation and storage to prepare for market connectivity. This includes operations such as sorting, grading, washing, drying, weighing, packaging, pre-cooling, and staging.

There are currently 249 packhouses integrating a precooling facility in India, a number expected to increase as part of national efforts to cut down on food loss, reduce emissions and improve farmers income.

A packhouse facility offers significant benefits for exports such as ensuring compliance with international food safety and quality standards, extended shelf life, reducing losses during transit, etc. For domestic markets, the expansion of integrated packhouse facilities is expected to positively impact food loss reduction, food safety, food traceability, nutritional availability, accountability, transparency and overall food system efficiency.

In September 2026, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Cool Coalition and the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), launched the Packhouse Design Guidelines. This guide provides a practical framework for developing sustainable, energy-efficient integrated packhouses for horticultural produce in India.

Developed under UNEP’s India Cooling Programme (ICCP) in consultation with BEE and technical committee, the guidelines cover all major aspects of planning, constructing, and outfitting integrated packhouses, ranging from building design and layout to system specifications and renewable energy integration. Key areas include:

Integrated packhouse functions
Building design and construction good practices
Thermal insulation and building materials
Refrigeration system design and energy optimisation
Renewable energy integration
Quantification of energy savings from efficiency measures

Several energy-saving measures are examined for building design, equipment and system design, and operation and maintenance processes, categorised according to their cost-effectiveness. Suggested energy saving measures include optimised size and insulation of pre-cooling and cold rooms, energy-efficient refrigeration components, as well as natural ventilation or evaporative cooling systems.

It was estimated that implementing energy-efficient building design measures could deliver electricity savings of approximately 2.92 TWh by 2037 ^[2], while adopting energy-efficient equipment and machinery could generate an additional 1.97 TWh of electricity savings over the same period.

For more information, visit the UNEP Cool coalition website.

Did you know? Walk-in cold rooms provide timely cooling at an early stage in the post-harvest value chain, especially for remote areas with unreliable access to grid power. Browse through IIR publications on the topic

Cold Chain Technology Brief: Walk-In Cold Rooms in Article 5 Countries.

WALK-IN COLD ROOMS, A PRACTITIONER'S TECHNICAL GUIDE - Design and Operation of Walk-In Cold Rooms for Precooling and Storage of Fresh Produce in Hot Climates, in Off-Grid and Unreliable Grid Situations.

Sources

[1] UNEP and IIR, 2025. Cold Chain Technology Brief: Commercial, Professional and Domestic Refrigeration. http://dx.doi.org/10.18462/unep.iir.coldchainbrief.commercial.10.2025

[2] UNEP, 2026. Packhouse Design Guidelines. Design Guidelines for Energy-Efficient Packhouse Infrastructure for an Integrated Cold-Chain. https://coolcoalition.org/news/packhouse-design-guidelines-set-out-pathway-energy-efficient-packhouses-and-stronger-cold

India: New Packhouse Design Guidelines to support sustainable first-mile food cold chain