In September 2026, the National Audit Office warned that government action had “not been sufficient” to ensure resilience against catastrophic disruption, and that the food sector’s ability to withstand such an event had not been tested.
Defra has since launched the Food Preparedness Group to strengthen preparations for threats including extreme weather, cyberattacks and infrastructure failure.
With 42% of UK food consumption supplied from overseas, resilience depends on the infrastructure that keeps food safe and moving.
Our latest thought leadership explores whether the cold chain is keeping pace, and what organisations need to become resilient by design.
UK cold-chain resilience: capacity is only the starting point
The UK cold chain sits at the point where food security, patient safety and consumer expectations meet operational reality.
It supports everything from imported food and chilled convenience meals to vaccines, biologics and other temperature-sensitive medicines. When it works, it is largely invisible. When it fails, the consequences can include lost availability, food waste, unusable medicines and delayed patient treatment.
Investment in cold-chain capacity is growing. But the more important question is whether resilience is keeping pace.
The challenge is not simply a shortage of capacity
Around 70% of UK third-party logistics cold-storage capacity is housed in facilities more than 20 years old, including approximately 30% aged 30 years or more. At the same time, newer automated cold stores require specialist refrigeration, insulated construction, significant power availability and complex control systems. Their development costs can be approximately 2.5 to three times those of a standard facility.
The challenge is therefore not simply whether enough pallet positions exist.
It is whether the right capacity is available in the right location, at the right temperature range, with sufficient energy security and operational flexibility to protect critical products when disruption occurs.
Frozen, chilled, multi-temperature and pharmaceutical capacity cannot always be used interchangeably. A large facility elsewhere in the country provides limited protection if its space cannot be accessed quickly, does not meet the required handling conditions or depends on the same vulnerable power supply, route or technology.
Capacity only strengthens resilience when it provides a viable alternative.
The conditions are changing
Much of the UK cold chain was designed for a different operating environment.
Higher temperatures increase the intensity and duration of refrigeration demand. Ageing systems may be less efficient, more difficult to maintain and less capable of supporting current throughput and temperature requirements. Energy volatility adds further pressure to infrastructure that must operate continuously.
Automation can improve efficiency, density and throughput. But it also increases dependence on reliable power, software, controls and specialist maintenance.
The result can be a cascade: hotter conditions increase cooling demand; assets work harder with less fault tolerance; local failures create waste and emergency movements; and limited substitute capacity turns a contained incident into wider disruption.
This exposure does not end at the distribution centre. Refrigerated vehicles, transfer points, retail cabinets, local fulfilment locations, pharmacies and clinical facilities can each become the weakest link.
Resilience has to be managed end to end
A cold chain is a connected system of producers, manufacturers, ports, transport providers, storage facilities, retailers and points of use.
Disruption can begin at any node and travel in either direction. Resilience therefore depends on how quickly products, inventory, transport, power and storage can be redirected when part of that system fails.
That requires five connected capabilities:
- Ecosystem governance: shared ownership, escalation routes and disruption scenarios across critical partners.
- Capacity and coverage: visibility of viable alternatives by product, location, season and temperature band.
- Climate-ready assets: investment based on future operating conditions, not only historic design assumptions.
- Secure and flexible energy: clear continuity options for every critical cold-chain node.
- Operational capability and visibility: early warning, decision rights and rehearsed recovery plans spanning inventory, routes, facilities and customers.
Investing in one capability while overlooking the others can leave the wider system exposed.
Resilience can also unlock growth
Cold-chain investment should not be viewed only as protection against failure.
The same investment can create access to new products, customers, channels and markets. Better temperature control can support a broader product range. Additional flexible capacity can enable volume growth. Improved visibility can allow earlier and more confident decisions.
The objective should therefore be to identify investments that both reduce continuity risk and remove constraints on future growth.
Leadership teams can begin with three questions:
- Which products, customers or regions would be affected first if a critical node failed?
- Where could cold-chain constraints prevent future growth?
- Which investments could both reduce risk and unlock new opportunities?
From there, organisations can map critical flows, stress-test them against disruption and growth scenarios, prioritise the most important interventions and mobilise delivery with the partners that determine continuity.
The UK does not simply need more cold-chain capacity. It needs a diverse, climate-ready, energy-secure and operationally recoverable system.
Where could resilience investment remove a critical constraint and unlock your organisation’s next phase of growth?
Explore our report
UK Cold Chain resilience
