EPedigree Traceability System for the Agricultural Food Supply Chain to Ensure Consumer Health

Umar Farooq,Yong-Shin Kang,Jongtae Rhee,Wu Tao,Ganjar Alfian

doi:10.3390/su8090839

Umar Farooq, Yong-Shin Kang + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090839

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Aug 24, 2016
Citations: 30	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Dongguk University, Sungkyunkwan University

Abstract

Sustainability relies on the environmental, social and economical systems: the three pillars of sustainability. The social sustainability mostly advocates the people’s welfare, health, safety, and quality of life. In the agricultural food industry, the aspects of social sustainability, such as consumer health and safety have gained substantial attention due to the frequent cases of food-borne diseases. The food-borne diseases due to the food degradation, chemical contamination and adulteration of food products pose a serious threat to the consumer’s health, safety, and quality of life. To ensure the consumer’s health and safety, it is essential to develop an efficient system which can address these critical social issues in the food distribution networks. This research proposes an ePedigree (electronic pedigree) traceability system based on the integration of RFID and sensor technology for real-time monitoring of the agricultural food to prevent the distribution of hazardous and adulterated food products. The different aspects regarding implementation of the proposed system in food chains are analyzed and a feasible integrated solution is proposed. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated and finally, a comprehensive analysis of the proposed ePedigree system’s impact on the social sustainability in terms of consumer health and safety is presented.

Highlights

In the past few decades, people have become more cognizant of sustainability issues and its importance for the human life on this planet
This study introduces an ePedigree traceability system based on the integration of three technologies: Radio frequency identification (RFID), sensors, and ePedigree
The proposed ePedigree traceability system provides the complete visibility from farmer to retailer and facilitates the consumers and government inspectors to verify whether a food product is safe for consumption or not

Summary

Introduction

In the past few decades, people have become more cognizant of sustainability issues and its importance for the human life on this planet. John Elkington [2], further elaborated the concept of sustainability and presents the Triple Bottom Line approach, based on three important dimensions: (i) Environmental dimension (planet); (ii) Economic dimension (profit) and (iii) Social dimension (people health and welfare). The social dimension of sustainability is associated with people’s well-being and includes many aspects; such as social justice, equality, food security, health and quality of life. As the products involve in the agricultural food industry intend for the human consumption, it is important to realize that any compromise on the food quality and safety directly affects the consumer’s health and well-being.

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