Abstract
Temperature fluctuation and abuse in the food cold chain (FCC) is becoming an increasingly crucial factor in the process of food production and for the logistic business, especially in COVID-19 pandemic. The quality of perishable food products depends largely on accurate transport and maintenance temperature. The evidence for temperature-related food waste and loss is extensive. The research problem is thus: how to decrease and control food losses caused by temperature abuse in the FCC and restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary objective is to propose a framework for real-time temperature measurement protocols supported by passive RFID, IoT and Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts. This method allows not only the signaling of temperature abuse alerts but, in addition to hitherto methods, investigation and mitigation of the causes of process instability of individual FCC links in the future. The secondary objective is to delineate the necessary data sources and ways of their collection and utilization in order to decrease food losses and waste via process stabilization of temperature in transport and storage. As contribution to current literature and practice, we offer an in-depth analysis of threats in the FCC in food transport and storage infrastructure and a solution supplemented by SPC charts and tested in controlled experiments that is practicable from economic and technical standpoints.
Highlights
Extensive data suggest the necessity to reduce the amount of food waste and losses (FWL) along the entire food supply chain, including distribution
We offer a background for the time– temperature measurement protocols supported by passive RFID, Internet of Things (IoT) and Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts
We offer a framework for the time–temperature measurement protocols supported by passive RFID, IoT and SPC charts, which allows signaling of temperature abuse alerts and enables investigation and mitigation of causes for process instability in individual food cold chain (FCC) links
Summary
Extensive data suggest the necessity to reduce the amount of food waste and losses (FWL) along the entire food supply chain, including distribution. Total FWL per capita by consumers, in production and in retail, is almost 300 kg/year in highly developed countries and approximately half of this amount in underdeveloped countries [1,2,3]. 22 percent of food in the developed countries is discarded in consumer homes [4,5]. In 2012, the European Commission (2012) [8] adopted a resolution to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2020 and designated the year 2014 as the “European year against food waste” (European Commission, 2014) [9]. That 20% of the food produced in the European Union is wasted with the cost of 143 billion EUR annually”. All this has decreased economic food availability. According to the UNEP Food Waste Index 2021 (UNEP, 2021) [11], around 931 million tonnes of food waste were generated in 2019—61% of which came from households, 26% from food service and 13% from retail
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