11. Conclusion

In the space of a century, the cold chain has become indispensable to the development of the food sector, in order to satisfy consumer demand for products of high hygienic and nutritional quality. Technical progress, regulations and the responsibility of operators have combined to ensure an excellent level of consumer safety, through increasingly efficient equipment and practices. The new demands of consumers in terms of traceability and environmental protection, of public authorities in terms of risk assessment, and of companies in terms of efficiency, represent a new challenge for this sector, which will certainly lead to changes in refrigeration and freezing processes, and in the practices of operators and control services in the years to come.