In recent years

China’s cold chain logistics has developed rapidly. To meet the trend of energy saving and emission reduction

and quantify the influence of cold chain on the environment

a life cycle assessment method is used to analyze the carbon footprint of precooling

storage

transportation

sales

and consumption in the cold chain life cycle of fruits and vegetables

and the carbon emission factor for each link is calculated in the paper. A typical vegetable cold chain is taken as an example to quantify the carbon footprint of the entire life cycle. The results show that the cold chain carbon footprint of a vegetable is 0.0413 kg per kilogram of carbon dioxide equivalents. The refrigerated transport stage contributes the most (69%)

and it is followed by the precooling stage (21%).