In the program presented by Hande Özdemir, World Refrigeration Day, cold chain, sustainable cooling, the contribution of cooling systems to food exports and digitalization in the cold chain were discussed. Karakuş stated that the 26 June World Refrigeration Day, which was celebrated for the first time last year, created awareness to draw attention to the importance of sustainable cooling in all areas of production, from food safety to medicine. Karakuş, who said that the "Cold Chain for Life" theme was determined for the World Refrigeration Day this year, said that SOSİAD will draw attention to the importance of the day with an event with rich content this year, as it did last year. 
Karakuş stated that the 26th of June was accepted as the World Refrigeration Day last year and said, “We became a full member of the European Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Association AREA in May 2016, so we started to follow the global developments and had a say. With the acceptance of 26 June as the World Refrigeration Day, we, together with Europe, celebrated the 26 June World Refrigeration Day in Istanbul. We launched the United Nations Industrial Development Organization-UNIDO‘s Demonstration Project in order to raise awareness about the importance of this day, and we talked about the effects of cooling on food and people.
Expressing that they will celebrate World Refrigeration Day by organizing a webinar in digital environment due to the current pandemic, Karakuş said: “This year, the theme of World Refrigeration Day has been determined as ‘Cold Chain for Life‘. In the webinar, we will both celebrate World Refrigeration Day and talk about the importance of food safety and cold chain. In terms of food safety and cold chain, cold storage and loss of food come to the fore. We will talk about these issues this year. A third of the world‘s food production is wasted each year, with more than 40 percent of these losses occurring in the supply chain and post-harvest. 60% of food products need refrigeration. We will come together with our valuable speakers, one of the leading associations of our sector, to raise awareness on these issues in the webinar we will organize today.” 

Turkey is one of the leading countries in food export and air conditioning.

About the effect of refrigeration on food, Karakuş said, “Our country is one of the leading countries especially in food exports and air conditioning. Turkey is a country rich in food production and diversity. Unfortunately, food losses cannot be prevented both in our country and in the world. We experience this in the harvest and supply chain in Turkey, while it is experienced in the retail chain and consumer side in the world. In this respect, we would like to draw attention to the importance of ‘sustainable cooling‘. With the Demonstration Project, which we launched last year, we conveyed the importance of sustainable cooling, our aim was to raise awareness of gases that are harmless to nature and have low global warming potential. We signed a protocol with UNIDO and completed this meaningful project with our Ministry of Environment and Urbanization.”

Emphasizing the issue of food losses, Karakuş gave the following information: “Another issue we draw attention to in industrial cooling in the food harvesting section is ‘rapid cooling‘. Rapid cooling of foods is a move towards both reducing losses and preserving the shelf life of foods, that is, their freshness. Rapid cooling at the time of harvest and transporting food with refrigerated vehicles will significantly reduce our food losses.”
Karakuş, stating that the coronavirus pandemic shows how important cooling is in our lives, said, “The importance of the cooling sector has emerged once again during the pandemic process. In addition to food safety, refrigeration was also on the agenda with the cold chain applications that ensure the safety of drugs, medical equipment and these. 
Talking about the work carried out by SOSİAD with the Ministry of Agriculture, Turgay Karakuş said, “This study is about reducing the losses of food in our country after agriculture and harvest. We made presentations to our Ministry on this subject and gave the outputs of the study. I would also like to thank our Ministry for their interest in this matter” and added that “Food losses must be prevented in order to increase our exports”. 
Touching on the issue of food safety, preservation and digitalization in the cold chain, Karakuş emphasized that food tracking, controlling food temperatures and eliminating malfunctions with remote monitoring systems, thanks to digitalization, prevent food losses and lead to an increase in exports. 
Karakuş ended his speech by talking about the future studies and educational projects of SOSİAD.