Did you know that keeping your food cold hurts the climate? Refrigerators, air conditioning units and dehumidifiers use greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons that trap at least a thousand times more heat over the same time period than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

That’s why California passed legislation to cut these gases significantly by 2030. Now, in an effort to meet that goal, it plans to take another step: Banning all but the most climate-friendly fluids in large cooling systems, although it will come at a cost for grocery stores and other businesses.

“Our goal is to develop an enforceable regulation that minimizes costs on end-users and at the same time minimizes noncompliance,” Melanie Turner, a spokeswoman for the California Air Resources Board, said in an email. She noted the regulation is still in draft form; public comment begins in June.

Starting in 2022, new cooling systems with more than 50 pounds of refrigerant fluids — an amount usually used in supermarkets, ice rinks and cafeterias — will face the first limits on the potency of the greenhouse gases they can emit if the new rule is approved. Companies with existing cooling system would have to reduce their global warming more gradually.

In 2023, stationary air conditioning systems will also have a new threshold for the climate impact of their fluids, although less strict than fridges. That would affect new and replaced equipment, from portable units, window and wall units, to other systems used in residential and commercial settings.

The problematic gases can escape after devices are disposed of, or during their lifetime if there is a leak.

Businesses said the air board worked with them to reach common ground on future regulations — but it’s still expensive. Under current regulations, facilities need to register and pay fees for their cooling systems, conduct leak inspections, repair and keep records. But under the new code, they would have to buy certain kinds of systems.

“While the new plan is an improvement, it still represents a significant financial burden for California supermarkets,” Morgan Smith, manager of Programs & Operations at the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council, said in an email.

Refrigeration systems in newly constructed supermarkets can cost $1 million to $2 million (meaning a $1 million incentive to help the industry comply with new regulations in the governor’s budget this year won’t go far). Companies may have to spend approximately 20% more up front for a new system to comply with the updated regulations, the board said.

Grocery stores have slim profit margins, the industry says, so they’ll feel the impact. Kelly Ash, vice president of government relations with the California Grocers Association, which represents grocery supply companies and retailers, said frugality is “keeping stores in communities where that’s helping to prevent a potential food desert situation.”

“Every penny counts,” she added.

Grocers are highly competitive and try to keep prices low, but have to balance that with higher labor costs as the minimum wage rises, Ash said. Their recruiting costs are also high since they tend to have large numbers of part-time and seasonal employees.

Manny Nazerian, service manager at Vartan’s Refrigeration Inc. in San Francisco, which installs fridges around the Bay Area, said the new fluids that California may require cost three times as much — nearly $300 for 22 pounds versus $100. Systems can last for years.

Some businesses said they won’t be affected. Dave Higgins, marketing director at Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco, said the business already replaced its fridges in 2014 to be more energy-efficient.

Industry experts said it can be hard to keep up with ever-evolving regulations, and changing them even a couple of years in advance isn’t always enough warning.

“We’re trying to keep up as much as we can, but it’s a lot to change, especially when we have a good system going on, and we have everything switching over, we have to carry more refrigerants in our service vehicles, it’s a little tough for a company,” Nazerian said.

Nazerian was also concerned about the safety of refrigerant alternatives, like propane, which is highly flammable. The air board said there are regulations about how much propane as a refrigerant substitute is safe, and many supermarkets already use it because of high energy efficiency and lower utility bills.

Other stakeholders said there weren’t yet viable alternative fluids for dehumidifiers approved by the Environmental Protection Agency — which could make the product unavailable to consumers if not addressed. The board said replacements are being developed, although it can take time for approval, but room ACs similar to dehumidifiers are already on the market using alternatives.

These new regulations aren’t the first steps (the state already banned two of the most high-polluting refrigerants) and they won’t be the last. California’s restrictions mirror a global treaty called the Kigali Amendment, which took effect last year but is not ratified by the U.S., which sets goals for a global phaseout of cooling fluids. There’s currently a bipartisan bill pending in Congress to make the same changes nationally.

“We’re just preparing the industry for what the reality is,” Glen Gallagher, an air board staff member, said at a public meeting in January.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the source for the statistic that hydrofluorocarbons trap at least a thousand times more heat over the same time period as carbon dioxide. It is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.