Modeling the causes of food wastage in Indian perishable food supply chain

Abstract

Wastage in the perishable fresh produce fruits and vegetables supply chain from harvesting stage till it reaches the consumer is very high in emerging markets like India. Studies are inadequate in analysing the causal factors of food losses in this context. This study intends to identify the causes of food wastage, as well as the driving power and dependence of these causes and to analyse the interactions among them. This work proposes to use fuzzy MICMAC and total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) based approach which is a novel effort in this sector, to study the interactions. Based on review of literature and brainstorming among experts in the food industry and academia, this study identified 16 variables as the super-set of causal factors of food wastage which can represent all other causes within them. It is found that the lack of scientific methods in harvesting and a large number of intermediaries in the chain have high driving power and can be considered as the root causes of the food losses. This work categorises the causes into several levels that give an idea regarding the cause which needs more attention than others. Thereby it provides practical insights into how to improve efficiency, competitiveness, and profitability of the food supply chains. For a developing country like India, in addition to the economy, it can have greater implications on food security and conservation of environment resources. This work can be utilized by supply chain designers, managers, and policy makers.