Picture used for illustration.

More than 70 countries pledged to minimize the amount of food that goes to waste due to poor refrigeration at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome.

The pledge was signed at an annual meeting of the Montreal Protocol. Government officials, ministers and experts worked on regulating man-made chemicals used in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems that are harmful to the ozone layer, at the meeting.

About one-third of the world's food is lost or wasted and the hope is that developing better methods to keep food cold while it is stored and transported will reduce waste.

Poor refrigeration leads to the loss of about 9% of perishable food in developed countries and about 23% in developing countries, where millions of people suffer from malnutrition.

According to experts better refrigeration would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the harmful gases used in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems.

The pledge was signed by the United States, China, European Union members and many nations in the Americas, Africa and Asia.