Food Lion LLC this week will unveil the nation's first grocery store to incorporate two ozone-friendly product refrigeration systems that reduce by more then 60 percent the amount of refrigerants needed to keep products cool or frozen. 

The new store, which will open May 22 in Portsmouth, Va., will be Food Lion’s third store to use advanced refrigeration technologies – and the first to incorporate two of these systems simultaneously.

The first store, in Dinwiddie, Va., opened early 2006 with a medium temperature secondary coolant system that uses water and glycol to refrigerate products. The second store, which opened in late 2006 in Montpelier, Va., uses a low temperature system featuring carbon dioxide (CO2) (a naturally occurring gas) to refrigerate low-temperature food products. Both systems were created with refrigeration partner Hill Phoenix, which is working with Food Lion to identify smarter ways to refrigerate food products using technologies that are gentler on the environment.

In addition, Food Lion’s Chesapeake, Va. store became its 725th to earn the Energy Star designation for superior energy performance and management.

The Energy Star label helps consumers recognize stores that meet U.S. EPA standards for energy efficiency. Food Lion owns more than half of the country's roughly 1,300 Energy Star labeled grocery stores, and is working to earn more than 100 Energy Star labels this year in order to bring its total number of Energy Star stores to 800.

Delhaize-owned Food Lion operates stores under the banners of Food Lion, Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, Harveys, and Reid's and is the only grocer to win seven consecutive Energy Star Partner of the Year awards.