Abstract
ABSTRACT The agri-food supply chain (AFSC) sets a series of challenges in the production, storage, distribution, and transportation processes, as the market's requirements for fresh food combine food quality and safety attributes. This research suggests a discrete event modeling to study the behavior of food quality in all supply chains (SCs) in terms of temperature and time variables in a stochastic manner. The ProModel software was used to simulate strawberry quality in the SC, considering a distribution route to export the fruit from Mexico to the United States. The suggested model together with a computer simulation analyzes the fruit quality from two perspectives: with and without a cold chain (CC). The obtained results revealed that in the case of CC usage, when consumed the strawberry's average quality was 85%. In the approach without CC, the results revealed that when the strawberry arrives and remains in the distribution center, it loses more than 40% of its quality. This proposal may help those involved in the AFSC to make decisions that allow them to maximize quality and profit, minimize waste, improve distribution routes, and control stock levels.
Highlights
Agri-Food Supply Chain and Food QualityThe growing development of electronic trade of fresh food with population changes and the evolution of food security standards dictates a growing demand for food of high quality
This study proposed a model to evaluate the quality of food in a discrete and stochastic manner using kinetic and the Arrhenius equation, which allows for the evaluation of the quality of food in terms of variations in temperature that occurs in different stages of the supply chain
The quality in the packing company remains at an average of 96.56%, while in the distribution center it decreased to approximately 92%, in the warehouse of the retailer it was 90.54%, and 85.25% in the store of the retailer (Figure 7)
Summary
Agri-Food Supply Chain and Food QualityThe growing development of electronic trade of fresh food with population changes and the evolution of food security standards dictates a growing demand for food of high quality. The technological and administrative advances in production at an orchard level in the post-harvest management, storage, processing, and distribution have played a facilitating role in agri-food supply chain (AFSC) (Miranda et al, 2014; Xue et al, 2014). Due to diverse weather conditions, global food demand, and instability in prices of commodities, the supply of agricultural products is volatile (Tsolakis et al, 2014). In such a way that it is essential to pay attention to optimization models, technologies, and tools that allow the minimization of food waste, maximizes quality, and in all SC
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