BIBLIOMETRIC AND VISUALIZED ANALYSIS OF FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN RESEARCH IN 2004-2020

Abstract

Nowadays, the importance of the food supply chain concept rises, as the world population increases, and the amount of natural resources decreases. The food supply chain helps to organize the process of food production, distribution, retailing, consumption, and disposal in a more sustainable way, with fewer losses and with larger benefits in compliance with the parameters of product quality and safety. Additionally, making modern food supply chains more sustainable will help to reduce the “domino” effect. However, there is a lack of bibliometric and visualization research in the food supply chain field. The results of the publications analyses in the food supply chain field are presented in the article. The research has been conducted by the application of the bibliometric method and visualization analysis to map the obtained results graphically. To reach the purpose of this study the 1 084 published papers were obtained from the Scopus Database. The conducted analysis helped to achieve some valuable insights. Firstly, the total number of publications in the “food supply chain” field is on the rise, with a peak in 2020. Secondly, the theme of the food supply chain becomes global, scientists from different institutions, countries, and continents begin working on it. Moreover, cooperation between countries and institutions is getting closer. Nevertheless, authors from the United Kingdom demonstrate the highest activity. Thirdly, the major current research critical spots in the “food supply chain” field, include sustainability, traceability, planning and optimization, social responsibility, and food waste. Also, the network of relationships between keywords within the research problem forms 7 clusters: food supply, sustainability, food waste, environmental impact, sustainable development, food processing, and inventory control. Furthermore, the research themes in the food supply chain have deepened during 2004-2020, they become more interdisciplinary and diversified. Thus, the findings of this paper and their graphical presentation are relevant and can help scientists to understand the latest achievements and gaps in the “food supply chain” field and offer useful guidance for further researches.