Evaluating the Sustainability Dimensions in the Food Supply Chain: Literature Review and Research Routes

Maria Elena Latino,Marta Menegoli,Martina De Giovanni

doi:10.3390/su132111816

Maria Elena Latino, Marta Menegoli + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111816

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Abstract

Nowadays, the world is facing numerous sustainability challenges and the modern food system is called to innovate processes or products in order to remain competitive within the market, as well as answering to strategic government guidelines for a more sustainable food supply chain. This study aims to investigate what the main research routes of a sustainable food supply chain are, explored by the international scientific panorama, with a view for providing companies with a framework of the sustainability paths that can be followed, and, to researchers, gaps and future research routes to explore. A systematic review method is adopted through bibliometric analysis and results were obtained with VOSViewer software support. Descriptive and thematic analyses allowed us to discover the bibliometric characteristics of the sample, the main specific topics and the related research routes already addressed in sustainable food supply chain, the main food supply chain models studied in association with sustainability and the effort employed by academia to investigate the three sustainability dimensions: environmental, economic and social. Concluding, the research field of sustainability in the food supply chain is focused on management issues able to generate impacts on process, systems, practices, production and quality.

Highlights

Following the neoclassical perspective, the food system is a socio-economic structure where (i) individuals’ behavior is guided by rational choice, decision making, human capital factors and lifestyle choices [1] and (ii) different types of sub-systems co-exist and reflect different ways of producing, processing, distributing and consuming food products [2]
The positive trend reflects the overall interest in sustainability issues and, in the impact that these could have on food supply chain, which was covered in the Introduction section [4,6,17,19,22,23,26,30,33]
The present analysis provides a series of graphical export sector of “Made in Italy” in the United Kingdom (UK), in terms of volumes, it is paying maps

Summary

Introduction

The food system is a socio-economic structure where (i) individuals’ behavior is guided by rational choice, decision making, human capital factors and lifestyle choices [1] and (ii) different types of sub-systems co-exist and reflect different ways of producing, processing, distributing and consuming food products [2]. In order to consider all these features, several conceptual approaches to the food system have been developed over the years within international scientific panorama, such as: system of provision [5], product lifecycle [6], industrial ecosystem [7,8] and food supply chain [9,10]. Food supply chain is a system of phases or stages, which represents a sequence of activities through which resources, materials and information flows are facilitated both downstream and upstream, in order to produce goods and/or services for consumption or utilization by a consumer [4,11]. The food supply chain is seen as a network of organizations and multiple actors which, through mutual contracts and economic relations, enable all the steps needed to produce and move foods from field to fork (agricultural production, storage and distribution, processing and packaging, retail and marketing). Processors, wholesalers, transporters and retailers are some of the actors involved in food supply

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