Food product traceability and supply network integration

Food frauds, including the intentional adulteration or misrepresentation of a food product for financial gain, undermine the safety, reliability, and integrity of food supply chains and networks. Such practices compromise the quality and authenticity of food products, ultimately eroding consumer trust. In response, industry stakeholders increasingly turn to digital technologies such as the Internet of Things and blockchain. Developed for cryptocurrency, blockchain is a digital ledger that records transaction details at every stage of the supply chain, creating a permanent and immutable record with the aim of enhancing transparency and traceability. Despite its growing application in the food industry, the features, benefits, and challenges of blockchain technology have been largely overlooked in criminological research on food crimes, particularly food fraud. This article addresses this gap by assessing blockchain from a criminological perspective, which provides a foundation for examining crimes and harms related to food fraud that occur in organisational settings, as well as the supply networks that they are connected to. Using the UK as a conceptual starting point, we examine how and why agri-food companies implement blockchain. We highlight the technology’s supposed benefits, while also discussing its drawbacks, including environmental impacts, high implementation costs, and vulnerabilities that may allow criminals to circumvent the system. We argue that blockchain, while potentially valuable, is often used as a ’gimmick’ to reduce the challenges posed by food fraud, and so is limited when addressing the deeper-rooted, systemic issues within food supply networks that facilitate the perpetration of food frauds.

Food frauds, including the intentional adulteration or misrepresentation of a food product for financial gain, undermine the safety, reliability, and integrity of food supply chains and networks. Such practices compromise the quality and authenticity of food products, ultimately eroding consumer trust. In response, industry stakeholders increasingly turn to digital technologies such as the Internet of Things and blockchain. Developed for cryptocurrency, blockchain is a digital ledger that records transaction details at every stage of the supply chain, creating a permanent and immutable record with the aim of enhancing transparency and traceability. Despite its growing application in the food industry, the features, benefits, and challenges of blockchain technology have been largely overlooked in criminological research on food crimes, particularly food fraud. This article addresses this gap by assessing blockchain from a criminological perspective, which provides a foundation for examining crimes and harms related to food fraud that occur in organisational settings, as well as the supply networks that they are connected to. Using the UK as a conceptual starting point, we examine how and why agri-food companies implement blockchain. We highlight the technology’s supposed benefits, while also discussing its drawbacks, including environmental impacts, high implementation costs, and vulnerabilities that may allow criminals to circumvent the system. We argue that blockchain, while potentially valuable, is often used as a ’gimmick’ to reduce the challenges posed by food fraud, and so is limited when addressing the deeper-rooted, systemic issues within food supply networks that facilitate the perpetration of food frauds.

The COVID-19 pandemic and related containment measures have placed food supply chains under great pressure. They have led to disruptions in supply and demand of food products but also led to shortfall in staff in various places affecting production, logistics, and adequacy of controls. Any disturbance in routine practices affects crime and criminal behaviour as has been conceptualised by the criminological Routine Activities Theory. Therefore, an effect of the pandemic on food fraud risk and prevalence may be expected. In the current study we examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food fraud vulnerabilities of European food businesses by conceptualising its effect on 50 food fraud risk factors identified previously using a theoretical framework analogue to the Routine Activities Theory. To identify the baseline vulnerabilities of industry segments, empirical fraud vulnerability assessment data from fish, meat, olive oil, spices, and various organic supply chains from previous studies were collated. Conventional and organic olive oil, meat, and spices appear industry segments with an intrinsically higher level of food fraud vulnerability. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual food fraud risk factors reveals primarily an enhancing effect on the economic and cultural/behavioural drivers as well as a reduction in adequacy of control measures. The pandemic has less impact on opportunities. When focusing on the individual industry segments, all are impacted in a negative sense. Even so, fish and meat industry segments see most widely spread effects in terms of production, logistics, and demand. These disruptions affect, in turn, in particular economic and cultural/behavioural drivers. Consequently, food fraud vulnerability of these animal production chain networks, which was already relatively high prior to the pandemic, appear to have further increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Food-product traceability systems have been developed to achieve seamless electronic connectivity to assure food safety through the use of information technology. This is determined by legislation. While achieving customer value through quality, food supply is the core logistical purpose. Food-product traceability as such is seldom regarded as a core purpose. Food-product standards are a key resource in developing connectivity between information systems operated by different firms in a supply network using numerical product codes. This study couples the technical characteristics of a food-product standard with the organizational characteristics of a supply network. The common purpose is to achieve customer value in the supply network. Alderson’s (1965) marketing-channels (transvection) model of product supply is applied to analyze potential multiple uses of the TraceFish product standard in its supply network. The case study of North Sea herring supply involves following raw material from in Norway to finished product in the Netherlands. Analysis of this empirical data exposed variation in TraceFish standard use, including coupling it with GTIN product codes. This facilitated seamless electronic information exchange between firms for a range of supply-network purposes, including tracing food. This perspective is possible when multiple functions and professions that are equally involved in operating and managing business processes are allowed to handle not only operation, but also develop information systems.

Certification, designation of origin (PDO), and traceability of food products can be viewed as quality cues, possessing certain socioeconomic and demographic characteristics that are highly valued by today's consumers. Thus, assessing how consumers evaluate such quality cues and to what extent they are willing to pay a premium for food with one or more of the above-mentioned labels helps producers and processors to adjust according to market demand. The present study aims to identify consumers' awareness, attitudes, and buying intention toward food quality cues such as certification, food safety, origin, and traceability in fresh produce (fruits and vegetables). A logit model was applied to data collected by interviewing 400 consumers in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece, to identify the factors that affect consumers' intention to pay a premium price for these specific quality cues for fresh produce. Results indicate that the most important factors affecting willingness to pay a premium are mainly related to positive attitudes toward healthy food, level of awareness, and, to a lesser extent, several socioeconomic characteristics. The recorded consumer interest for safety and quality in fresh produce reveals that a promising market for such products can be developed by an adequate response in the relative labelling.

In recent years, a number of dynamic aspects of food supply chains have attracted great interest among social scientists investigating rural restructuring and change. These include: the expansion of organic agriculture; the development of new value added enterprises at farm level and the revitalisation of traditional and new-old artisanal production practices; the expansion from a low base of the market share of 'alternative' short supply chains, such as farmers' markets; and the so-called quality turn, riding on the heels of another turn in rural social research - the consumption turn. All of these changes come together in a vision of alternative agro food networks (AAFNs) that has been built around empirical and theoretical work from a number of predominantly European social researchers, centred on Wageningen, but conducted in a number of countries in Europe. These and other associated changes in the composition of farm-based economic activity are seen to be constitutive of a new paradigm of rural development comprising an alternative network of producers, consumers and other actors in relation to the mainstream agro-food system (Van der Ploeg et al. 2000; Van der Ploeg and Renting 2004; Renting et al. 2003). The theorisation surrounding this work on AAFNs has been sharply criticised by Goodman (2004). He challenges the vision of certain European social scientists of an alternative food sector rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the commodity-based food system to constitute a new paradigm of rural development. He notes their view of AAFNs as: 'innovative precursors of paradigm change, of a more endogenous, territorialized and ecologically embedded successor to the allegedly crisis-ridden modernisation model of conventional industrialised agriculture.' (Goodman 2004:6) In particular, he challenges the binary categorisation into alternative and mainstream and is deeply sceptical as to the existence of a new paradigm while, at the same time, highly cognisant of dynamic changes within the agro-food sector. This paper is motivated by a desire to explore the extent to which different theories can help interpret and explain some of the most dynamic areas of agro-food systems that belong neither in the mainstream food supply chains and networks, nor in the alternative food supply networks. We review two areas where we argue that hybridity is evident in food supply chains and networks, and draw conclusions as to the research needs in a field where too often dualistic interpretations have prevailed.

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic has caused serious disruptions in food supply networks. Based on the case of the remerging epidemic in China, this paper aims to investigate food supply network disruption and its mitigation from technical and structural perspectives. To solve the optimal policy choice problem that how to improve mitigation capability of food supply networks by using traceability technology and adjusting network structure, the occurrence mechanism of food supply network disruptions is revealed through a case study of the remerging COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing’s Xinfadi market. Five typical traceability solutions are proposed to mitigate network disruptions and their technical attributes are analyzed to establish disruption mitigation models. The structure of food supply networks is also controlled to mitigate disruptions. The structural attributes of three fundamental networks are extracted to adjust the network connections pattern in disruption mitigation models. Next, simulation experiments involving the disruption mitigation models are carried out to explore the independent and joint effects of traceability technology and network structure on mitigation capability. The findings suggest that accuracy makes a more positive effect on the mitigation capability of food supply networks than timeliness due to the various technical compositions behind them; the difference between these effects determines the choice decision of supply networks on traceability solution types. Likewise, betweenness centralization makes a positive effect but degree centralization makes a negative effect on mitigation capability because intermediary firms and focal firms in food supply networks have different behavior characteristics; these effects are both regulated by supply network types and exhibit different sensitivities. As for the joint effect of technical and structural attributes on mitigation capability, the joint effect of accuracy and betweenness centralization is bigger than the independent effects but smaller than their sum; the joint effect of timeliness and betweenness centralization depends on networks type; while the positive effect of accuracy or timeliness on mitigation capability is greater than the negative effect of degree centralization; theses joint effects are caused by the complicated interactive effects between technical composition and behaviors of intermediary firms or focal firms. These findings contribute to disruption management and decision-making theories and practices.

This paper discusses an optimization model for handling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic based on food supply network through regional food hubs (RFHs) under uncertainty. To this end, uncertainty is assumed in the demand and production data. During the Pandemic COVID-19 period, uncertainty has increased and the food supply chain system has changed. Thus, a new configuration of the food supply network requires analysis. In this paper, the concept of RFH is introduced to connect producers in rural areas and customers in urban areas. This paper determines the location and capacity of RFHs, the food supply network, the sum of maximum food supplies, and minimum logistics cost. This is done via a Multi-Objective Many-to-Many Location-Routing Problem model. Furthermore, since the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic is uncertain, robust optimization is employed to handle uncertainties. During the current pandemic, red zones are defined to indicate the severity of the pandemic in a region. In this paper, the numerical experiment is considered for three scenarios: when a region is in large-scale social distancing, partial social distancing, or normal conditions. This social distancing situation is based on the defined red zones. The optimal food supply network is obtained for the three scenarios and the best scenario among the three is identified.

Genetic Fingerprint – Innovative Method for Animal Products Traceability in the Context of Bio-economy

The paper aims are presenting the concept of food supply chain and networks management and its components applicable in design of modern fresh and processed (frozen) food distribution systems. Introduction of the traceability concept allows analysis of shipments movements and their origin and, as a consequence tracing the movement of food and its components throughout all stages of its production and distribution. The principles of consistency and transparency in data and information exchange among the participants in the food supply chain and networks create conditions for effectivity and efficiency of food supply systems operation securing their safety and quality making full use of the resources thanks to flexibility of reaction to changes occurring in the needs appearing in the market. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) allows identification of the placement in space and time of food products, the sender and the destination within the food chain. In the second part of the paper the main conclusions of an international benchmark study of traceability systems in different supply chains in several countries are presented. The paper concludes with cost-benefits discussion related to issues that need to be taken into consideration when an organisation develops its chain traceability strategy.

Traceability of food products is an important requirement for improving food safety and consumer confidence. An effective global food traceability system can reduce food waste, improve safety, and minimize economic losses. This paper proposes a new conceptual framework for food logistics involving food traceability systems, supply and demand, and pricing. The research will be conducted by taking primary data for data related to samples of nutritional content and fish contamination levels in several fish markets in East Java province. Secondary data collection was carried out by taking data on the type, stock, origin, and daily price of fish in each fish market in East Java province. Then, the data obtained will be updated on a system connected to the Cloud database to be processed and displayed on the developed Food Logistics Information System (SILOPANG). This information system is designed to provide daily real-time updates to provide recommendations for the distribution and supply chains of fishery products between regions in East Java Province. SILOPANG is expected to become a decision support system (DSS) for the fisheries sector in fisheries areas to make the logistics process and supply chain of fishery commodities more efficient.

Food product traceability from harvesting, through food processing to the final food product and through the retailer to the end consumer is a significant process that has to ensure food quality and safety. The traceability enables the end consumer to get information from all previous stages of the food product, leading back to the food origin. In this way, the consumer can get more information on the specific product, and thus make a decision on buying the product that suits his needs best. In each stage of the food product transformation, important data are generated for the subsequent chain participants. Every participant should have access to certain data of interest to them. This can be achieved by using automated identification technologies, like RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) and two-dimensional barcode, which allow faster data acquisition, recording and reading processes than the traditional means, and provide up-to-date information in each product stage. Furthermore, these technologies allow the possibility to record large amounts of data for each specific product, and interconnect all the data in a database. This paper discusses the process of providing traceability of food products, recording, transmitting and reading of significant data in specific stages of food product chain, with the application of automated identification technologies, including the possibility of obtaining additional data from a database, according to appropriate access level of each participant in the chain. Advantages and disadvantages of automated identification technologies are discussed, with the proposition for using specific technologies in certain food product stages.

Global food security is facing numerous severe challenges. Population growth, climate change, and irrational agricultural inputs have led to a reduction in available arable land, a decline in soil fertility, and difficulties in increasing crop yields. As a result, the supply of food and agricultural products is under serious threat. Against this backdrop, the development of new technologies to increase the production of food and agricultural products and ensure their supply is extremely urgent. Agricultural nanotechnology, as an emerging technology, mainly utilizes the characteristics of nanomaterials such as small size, large specific surface area, and surface effects. It plays a role in gene delivery, regulating crop growth, adsorbing environmental pollutants, detecting the quality of agricultural products, and preserving fruits and vegetables, providing important technical support for ensuring the global supply of food and agricultural products. Currently, the research focus of agricultural nanotechnology is concentrated on the design and preparation of nanomaterials, the regulation of their properties, and the optimization of their application effects in the agricultural field. In terms of the research status, certain progress has been made in the research of nano-fertilizers, nano-pesticides, nano-sensors, nano-preservation materials, and nano-gene delivery vectors. However, it also faces problems such as complex processes and incomplete safety evaluations. This review focuses on the horticultural industry, comprehensively expounding the research status and application progress of agricultural nanotechnology in aspects such as the growth regulation of horticultural crops and the quality detection and preservation of horticultural products. It also deeply analyzes the opportunities and challenges faced by the application of nanomaterials in the horticultural field. The aim is to provide a reference for the further development of agricultural nanotechnology in the horticultural industry, promote its broader and more efficient application, contribute to solving the global food security problem, and achieve sustainable agricultural development.

Building food traceability system made little progress in recent years, so we propose the idea of building the system under the concept of FSDN (food supply and demand network). After comparing the likelihood of food safety incidents in food supply chain with food supply and demand network and analyzing corporate profits in the network, we concluded that building FSDN traceability system can reduce the occurrence of food safety incidents and companies can gain economic profits.

ABSTRACTAgricultural production in developing countries needs to meet global traceability requirements to enable food product export. A single case study of a multi-tier supply network provides a detailed description on features of developing traceability of mangoes harvested in Indonesia. This effort involves the integrated, time-limited effort of different professional actors in a project-based network. Developing food product traceability is a boundary-spanning effort; a need to coordinate both actors and the traceability project as an organisational entity. Organising food product traceability importantly involves integration of the different supply network actors as well as the time-limited integration of external actors with technical competence about the traceability system. The case reveals that these technical professionals in addition to organising the project also are decisive in creating an integrated supply network to facilitate the traceability development and system implementation. Findings indicate that developing traceability in developing economies is not much different today than developing this ability in economies commonly labelled as more developed.