Food Lion has opened the nation's first grocery store that will incorporate two ozone-friendly refrigeration systems that reduce by more then 60 percent the amount of refrigerants needed to keep products cool.

The Portsmouth, Va., store opened Thursday and is the third Food Lion to use advanced refrigeration technologies — and the first to incorporate two of these systems simultaneously.

"This is a significant step forward in our decade-old journey of environmentally friendly operations," said Kyle Mitchell, Food Lion vice president of store development. "We're proud to be a leader in testing and incorporating advanced refrigeration technologies the same way we've lead the grocery industry in energy conservation strategies. Our goal is to make insightful operating choices today to protect the environment and sustain the communities in which we operate for years to come."

A Dinwiddie, Va., store opened in 2006 with a medium temperature secondary coolant system that uses water and glycol to refrigerate products. The Montpelier, Va., store opened later that year, using a low temperature system featuring carbon dioxide for refrigeration. Both systems were created with refrigeration partner Hill Phoenix, which strives to identify smarter ways of refrigerating.

Food Lion's Chesapeake, Va., store also became the company's 725th to earn the Energy Star designation.

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Food Lion made the official announcement this past week about its pharmacies' Healthy Saver program.

"Healthy Saver is a great opportunity for Food Lion to show our customers we're looking for ways to help them save money," said John Bednarz, director of Pharmacy for Food Lion. "With the rising costs of health care, we recognize that a sizable portion of the population has difficulty paying for their health care needs because they are underinsured or, worse yet, not insured at all. Healthy Saver is designed to help our customers better manage their health by offering great prices on all prescription drugs and some medical supplies."

Find a list of covered drugs at www.foodlion.com/healthysaver.

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