Entire Food Supply Chain Research Articles

Evaluation of Determinants of Food Waste in Family Households in the Greater Porto Area Based on Self-Reported Consumption Practices

Despite food waste occurring along the entire food supply chain, a significant proportion occurs in domestic settings. Large quantities of domestic food waste have been attributable to consumer behaviors during buying, cooking, consumption, and disposal. The main objective of this research was to understand the major determinants of household food waste from families in the north of Portugal. A convenience sample was used, which was drawn from households in the Greater Porto Area. Data were collected through a self-reported questionnaire that included three groups of structured questions related to perceived behavior and attitudes towards food consumption, leftover usage, and food waste. Exploratory data analysis was used to identify underlying dimensions. No relationships were found between socio-demographic data and food waste, buying behavior, or destination/use of leftovers. The majority of the participants reported a high level of planning of their grocery shopping. Fruits and vegetables presented the highest frequency of consumption, followed by sources of carbohydrates and sources of proteins. The storage of cooked food from different food groups presented a single factor, grouping the majority of the individual food leftovers, going from fruits and vegetables to sources of carbohydrates and proteins. The reported levels of wastage of the different food products were grouped into three dimensions: waste of vegetables, waste of protein sources, and waste of sources of carbohydrates. Waste of precooked foods emerged as an independent item, and it was the individual item with the highest frequency. The families studied reported a positive attitude concerning buying, consumption, and wastage, revealing a particular awareness of food waste and its social and environmental impact.

Regulations and standards for quality and food safety

Food products placed on the market must be safe to eat and have adequate quality. Food safety and quality are governed by the laws that each country brings to its market. In addition, legislation that has been adopted at regional and world level has a very important role in the international trade in food products. Nowadays, it is not possible to imagine international food trade without the existence of standards for particular product categories. Standards related to food products are a kind of limit for consumers regarding the quality, safety and authenticity of the food they eat. Efforts to harmonize different standards in order to facilitate and uniform the process of food production and trade are of great importance in the world. Enterprises producing food products in Republic of Srpska face many challenges today. Customers are increasingly demanding food quality and safety requirements, which are often more stringent than official legal standards for certain product categories. There has been a concentration of food trade on large trading systems whose bargaining power has increased sharply relative to food producers. In recent years, there have been a number of certification schemes for the certification of food products, which has had a major impact on not only the business of the companies in this field, but also on the evolution of the food quality and safety management system. In most cases, certification scheme owners are retail systems, traders associations, large multinationals with the support of certification bodies and traders associations. With this approach, export barriers to food products from Republic of Srpska are increasing significantly, as it is no longer necessary to meet only the legal requirements in the country where the product is sold, but also specific private standards prescribed by customers. All these efforts, on the other hand, are aimed at preventing incidental situations related to the possible poisoning of consumers with food products and the consequences that such cases can cause. In addition, there is a growing concern in the world for consumer health, which may be disturbed by the deliberate contamination of food, most often the result of ideologically motivated terrorist activities. Today, consumers want to be sure of what they eat and in terms of the origin, quality and all other attributes attributed to certain types of food. Modern standards related to integrated approaches to food quality and safety management also require measures to be taken to prevent food fraud that are motivated by the economic gain of fraudsters. In the legislation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or the Republika Srpska, the application of the concept of establishing food security in the entire food supply chain, "from field to table", begins with the practical adoption of the Food Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the meantime, the Food Law of the Republika Srpska was adopted, defining the obligations of food and feed business operators, as well as a system of official controls on food and feed. It is quite clear that the transition from one concept of food legislation, applicable in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), to a modern proactive approach is still underway, and that the Republic of Srpska seeks to align its food legislation with the legislation that valid in the European Union (EU). Taking into account all the specific features of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state and the competences defined by the Dayton Constitution at the entity level, the process of harmonization of legislation is more complex with EU legislation. In a number of cases, legislation is adopted at the state and entity levels for the same purpose, and sometimes the essential technical requirements in these regulations are different. This situation causes confusion, above all, for those who need to apply the requirements of the regulations in their business, which are the food business operators.

Food contact materials recalls and international trade relations: an analysis of the nexus between RASFF notifications and product origin

Nowadays, quality assurance and food safety are necessary objectives for companies that produce and market food. Food contact materials (FCMs) are essential to ensure adequate levels of food safety, involving the entire food supply chain, since they are intended to be in contact with food during production, handling or storage. They are governed by European Union (EU) and national legislation and all serious food safety hazards, including legislation specific to FCMs, are reported via the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). The aim of this study is to analyze notifications in the RASFF database related to FCMs during the period from 2007 to 2019, testing the significance of the relation between the notified products’ origin and other variables (i.e. hazard and type of food contact materials, notification basis, notification type, risk decision) and providing insights to the European trade relations and practices. Additionally, a study on melamine and polyamide-based materials produced in China and introduced into the European market was carried out to evaluate the effects of Commission Regulation (EU) No 284/2011. Our analysis showed a significant association between the origin of the notified products (China, European, non-European) and the other selected categorical variables (hazard category, type of FCMs, notification type, distribution status and risk decision)and an overall positive effect of Commission Regulation (EU) No 284/2011 on the number of notifications of melamine products from China.

Modelling the enablers of food supply chain for reduction in carbon footprint

Reducing carbon footprints has become a pertinent global issue. The creation of carbon footprints is germane in the food supply chain owing to food-wastage. Food is a valuable commodity that not only quickly transforms to waste but also adversely impacts the environment. It leads to loss of labour hours, futile resources, unfed lives, lost profits and an increase in environmental hazards. With this backdrop, the present study aims to identify the key enablers which are crucial in diminishing the inefficiencies across the entire food supply chain. Interpretive structural modelling and matrix of cross-impact multiplications applied to classification techniques are used to understand the interdependence of the shortlisted enablers. The study provides holistic and practical insights to the stakeholders for improving the effectiveness of their firms by level partitioning the enablers as ‘givens’ (regulations and governance), ‘means’ (technology, financial implication, perishability, logistics and traceability) and ‘ends’ (inventory management, storage, collaboration, trust, hygiene, packaging and information sharing). The research findings will facilitate the strategic decision making regarding the reduction in the wastage of food thereby diminishing the level of carbon footprint creation. Apart from providing significant implications for the policymakers, the results also add the theoretical implications in the extant literature.

Challenges of Food Waste Governance: An Assessment of European Legislation on Food Waste and Recommendations for Improvement by Economic Instruments

Food is wasted throughout the entire food supply chain—from agricultural production to the household level. This has negative impacts on natural resources and the environment. At the same time, food waste is undermining the global target of food security. In turn, reducing food waste can minimise the environmental effects of agriculture on climate, biodiversity, soils, water bodies and the atmosphere. All of this is reflected in the fact that food waste is subject to various legal acts of the European Union and that it is also a major subject in the new EU Farm to Fork Strategy from May 2020. Supported by an analysis of the diffuse empirical data on food waste, the purpose of this article is to analyse the current EU legislation on food waste and its reduction to answer the following research questions: How is food waste integrated into European policies? What is the impact of European legislation on food waste? Is European legislation sufficient to trigger not only food waste reduction but also comprehensive changes in the agricultural and food sector to support global climate and environmental targets as set in the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity? Which instruments are the most suitable to do so? Methodologically, a qualitative governance analysis is applied. It is found that relevant legal acts for governing food waste include circular economy and waste law, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy as well as food law, while international environmental targets serve as an overarching measure for governance analysis. The legal analysis shows that existing legislation lacks steering effect to significantly reduce food waste. To overcome current governance problems, the article introduces economic policy instruments. It is concluded that quantity control focusing on overarching parameters such as fossil fuels or animal-derived products has not only the potential to reduce food waste by increasing food prices but can also address the multiple interlinked environmental challenges of the agricultural and food sector.

Insect Farming for Feed and Food Production from a Circular Business Model Perspective

The studies focused on the use of insects have outlined numerous reasons for using insects as food and feed as an important method to increase food opportunities for consumers. Insects have been emphasized as a food source with a low environmental impact due to the limited requirement for arable land and water, low ecological cost, and high-quality protein provision. In Europe and Western countries, insect farming is a growing business in which, however, some critical economic aspects must be recognized. The sector needs to be adequately promoted to rationally exploit the huge amount of potential. As such, the aim of this study was to analyze the recent research on economic aspects related to insect farming for feed and food production with the purpose of providing evidence of the critical economic points in this emerging sector. The focus was mainly oriented to understanding how insect farming can foster virtuous circular economic processes, specifically considering economic aspects on the basis of the limited literature currently available and the circular economic principles. A circular business model approach was proposed to address the entire insect-based feed and food supply chain from a circular economic perspective. In our opinion, the findings underline some economic research questions that need to be addressed in the near future, and the conceptual approach can be individualized to help increase cost- and eco-effectiveness from a circular economic perspective.

Inactivation by osmotic dehydration and air drying of Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, hepatitis A virus and selected surrogates on blueberries

Osmotically dehydrated and air dried berry fruits are used as ingredients for the production of yoghurts, chocolates, cereal bars and mixes, ice creams and cakes and these fruits are often subjected to mild thermal treatments only, posing questions around their microbiological safety. As osmotic dehydration methods and parameters vary considerably within the industry and minimally processed high quality fruits are increasingly sought, the scope of this study was to determine which temperatures are required for the inactivation of relevant bacteria and viruses during osmotic dehydration of berries, using blueberries as a model berry in a thawed state to mimic common industrial practices. Additionally, we studied the inactivation of osmotic dehydration at 23 °C, sometimes referred to “cold infusion” followed by air drying at 100 °C to determine the microbiological safety achieved by this combined treatment. Four pathogens (Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes and hepatitis A virus (HAV)) and five surrogates (Enterococcus faecium, Escherichia coli P1, Listeria innocua, murine Norovirus (MNV) and bacteriophage MS2) were inoculated on blueberries and reductions were measured after different treatment combinations. After osmotic dehydration of bacterial strains at 40 °C no survivors were detected on blueberries, with the exception of E. faecium. Inactivation of the viruses at 45 °C showed no survivors for MS2 and mean reductions of 1.5 and 3.4 log10 median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50)/g for HAV and MNV, respectively. Similarly, in the sugar solution at 40 °C, no survivors were observed, with the exception of E. faecium and the three viruses. The combined process (osmotic dehydration at 23 °C followed by air-drying at 100 °C) achieved an >6 log reduction of all tested bacterial strains and MS2. For HAV and MNV, 2.6 and >3.4 log10 TCID50/g were measured. In summary, the present study shows that osmotic dehydration appears an efficient control measure for the control of L. monocytogenes, S. enterica and E. coli O157:H7 if carried out at 40 °C or at 23 °C and followed by air-drying at 100 °C. Based on the results generated with MNV, the combined treatment is also expected to reduce human Norovirus (NoV) but does not appear to be sufficient to fully control HAV. The results contribute to a better management of the microbial safety of osmotically dehydrated and dried berries and especially the results generated for the viruses emphasize that within a robust food safety management system, safety must be assured through the entire food supply chain and therefore must start at primary production with the implementation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).

A Gravity-Based Food Flow Model to Identify the Source of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks.

Computational traceback methodologies are important tools for investigations of widespread foodborne disease outbreaks as they assist investigators to determine the causative outbreak location and food item. In modeling the entire food supply chain from farm to fork, however, these methodologies have paid little attention to consumer behavior and mobility, instead making the simplifying assumption that consumers shop in the area adjacent to their home location. This paper aims to fill this gap by introducing a gravity-based approach to model food-flows from supermarkets to consumers and demonstrating how models of consumer shopping behavior can be used to improve computational methodologies to infer the source of an outbreak of foodborne disease. To demonstrate our approach, we develop and calibrate a gravity model of German retail shopping behavior at the postal-code level. Modeling results show that on average about 70 percent of all groceries are sourced from non-home zip codes. The value of considering shopping behavior in computational approaches for inferring the source of an outbreak is illustrated through an application example to identify a retail brand source of an outbreak. We demonstrate a significant increase in the accuracy of a network-theoretic source estimator for the outbreak source when the gravity model is included in the food supply network compared with the baseline case when contaminated individuals are assumed to shop only in their home location. Our approach illustrates how gravity models can enrich computational inference models for identifying the source (retail brand, food item, location) of an outbreak of foodborne disease. More broadly, results show how gravity models can contribute to computational approaches to model consumer shopping interactions relating to retail food environments, nutrition, and public health.

Are Distributed Ledger Technologies the panacea for food traceability?

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), such as blockchain, has the potential to transform supply chains. It can provide a cryptographically secure and immutable record of transactions and associated metadata (origin, contracts, process steps, environmental variations, microbial records, etc.) linked across whole supply chains. The ability to trace food items within and along a supply chain is legally required by all actors within the chain. It is critical to food safety, underpins trust and global food trade. However, current food traceability systems are not linked between all actors within the supply chain. Key metadata on the age and process history of a food is rarely transferred when a product is bought and sold through multiple steps within the chain. Herein, we examine the potential of massively scalable DLT to securely link the entire food supply chain, from producer to end user. Under such a paradigm, should a food safety or quality issue ever arise, authorized end users could instantly and accurately trace the origin and history of any particular food item. This novel and unparalleled technology could help underpin trust for the safety of all food, a critical component of global food security. In this paper, we investigate the (i) data requirements to develop DLT technology across whole supply chains, (ii) key challenges and barriers to optimizing the complete system, and (iii) potential impacts on production efficiency, legal compliance, access to global food markets and the safety of food. Our conclusion is that while DLT has the potential to transform food systems, this can only be fully realized through the global development and agreement on suitable data standards and governance. In addition, key technical issues need to be resolved including challenges with DLT scalability, privacy and data architectures.

Strategic decision support systems for short supply chain development in the agrifood sector

There has been an interest in short food supply chain recently which has stemmed from the need of improving the flow both of products and information from suppliers to customers. Although, many tools have been developed in order to increase the performance of supply chain, they haven't succeeded in helping managers make strategic decisions concerning the operations of the short food supply one. In the agrifood sector, practitioners face short food supply chains as integrated systems that incorporate all the processes of traditional supply chains. Thus, decision support systems (DSSs) are required to help managers handle these processes properly. Most of the existing studies focus on the improvement of individual firms or processes more than on the design of an entire food supply chain. So, the purpose of this paper is to propose such a strategic DSS model that based on the Strategic information systems planning (SISP) process, could provide a holistic approach to effective decision making in short supply chain in the agrifood industry. This model supports product managers to improve the effectiveness of food supply operations.

Strategic decision support systems for short supply chain development in the agrifood sector

There has been an interest in short food supply chain recently which has stemmed from the need of improving the flow both of products and information from suppliers to customers. Although, many tools have been developed in order to increase the performance of supply chain, they haven't succeeded in helping managers make strategic decisions concerning the operations of the short food supply one. In the agrifood sector, practitioners face short food supply chains as integrated systems that incorporate all the processes of traditional supply chains. Thus, decision support systems (DSSs) are required to help managers handle these processes properly. Most of the existing studies focus on the improvement of individual firms or processes more than on the design of an entire food supply chain. So, the purpose of this paper is to propose such a strategic DSS model that based on the Strategic information systems planning (SISP) process, could provide a holistic approach to effective decision making in short supply chain in the agrifood industry. This model supports product managers to improve the effectiveness of food supply operations.

Energy and environmental life cycle assessment of an institutional catering service: An Italian case study

Food production is recognised as one of the major drivers for global environmental pressure. In the last years, changes in consumption models result in an increasing population consuming food out of home that pose the catering service sector at the centre of the European Union policies aimed at improving the environmental sustainability of the food sector. In this framework, better technical knowledge on the environmental impacts of catering service is essential in order to identify potential actions towards a more sustainable food sector. This article presents an environmental assessment of a school catering service operating in Italy and delivering approximately 2,518,128 meals per year. Starting from primary data on the amount of each food consumed in the catering service examined, we perform an environmental analysis of an equivalent meal ready to be consumed in the schools canteens by using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology consistent with ISO 14040 standard. The system boundaries include food and tableware production, food transport, food storage and cooking and waste treatment. Due to a lack of primary data tableware production, food storage, cooking and waste treatment are modelled using literature data or models.The results of the analysis show that the food production phase is relevant to almost all assessed impact categories (contribution higher than 65%). The exception is represented by photochemical oxidation impact categories in which the larger impact is linked to the transportation phase. The environmental impacts associated to the tableware production, food storage and cooking are relevant to global warming and global energy requirement (contributions higher than 7%).The scenario analysis of potential actions aimed at reducing the environmental impacts of the catering service shows that, to obtain a more sustainable food sector, strategies must be implemented along the entire food supply chain and considering a wide range of environmental impact categories.

Genetic traceability practices in a large-size beef company in China.

An effective and trustworthy traceability system is important for food safety and quality; however, traditional traceability systems that only rely on the recording method do not completely prevent food fraud. DNA-based traceability techniques facilitate seamless connectivity within the entire food supply chain. A convenient and low-cost ear tag device was invented for collecting animal blood samples as an identity control, and a panel including 12 single nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) loci was selected to distinguish individuals with a matching probability of 1.70 × 10-5. The exact animal individual was identified by comparing the SNP genotype barcodes between the meat and blood samples derived from the recording system to further validate authenticity of the recording system. These results illustrate that a combination of the genetic traceability method and a traditional recording system can provide trustworthy traceability for consumers.

Environmental impacts of food waste in Europe

Approximately 88 Million tonnes (Mt) of food is wasted in the European Union each year and the environmental impacts of these losses throughout the food supply chain are widely recognised. This study illustrates the impacts of food waste in relation to the total food utilised, including the impact from food waste management based on available data at the European level. The impacts are calculated for the Global Warming Potential, the Acidification Potential and the Eutrophication Potential using a bottom-up approach using more than 134 existing LCA studies on nine representative products (apple, tomato, potato, bread, milk, beef, pork, chicken, white fish). Results show that 186 Mt CO2-eq, 1.7 Mt SO2-eq. and 0.7 Mt PO4-eq can be attributed to food waste in Europe. This is 15 to 16% of the total impact of the entire food supply chain. In general, the study confirmed that most of the environmental impacts are derived from the primary production step of the chain. That is why animal-containing food shows most of the food waste related impacts when it is extrapolated to total food waste even if cereals are higher in mass. Nearly three quarters of all food waste-related impacts for Global Warming originate from greenhouse gas emissions during the production step. Emissions by food processing activities contribute 6%, retail and distribution 7%, food consumption, 8% and food disposal, 6% to food waste related impacts. Even though the results are subject to certain data and scenario uncertainties, the study serves as a baseline assessment, based on current food waste data, and can be expanded as more knowledge on the type and amount of food waste becomes available. Nevertheless, the importance of food waste prevention is underlined by the results of this study, as most of the impacts originate from the production step. Through food waste prevention, those impacts can be avoided as less food needs to be produced.

Editorial and News

Editorial and News

Official controls according to Integrated Regional Plan in Campania Region 2011/2014.

Due to EU law, European citizens enjoy one of the highest worldwide food safety standards. Along the entire food supply chain, mandatory controls are made to ensure that plant and animal products healthiness and food and feed safety are properly labeled and comply with the strictly EU rules. The process of review of European legislation began with the promulgation of the Regulation 178/2002/EC (Official Journal of the EC no. L31 of 01/02/2002) and was completed with the hygiene package. Regulation No. 178/2002/EC (the General Food Law) laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety.

NFC-Based Traceability in the Food Chain

In recent years, many events related to food and public health, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease), dioxin, bird flu and swine flu, brought the issue of food security to the center of international attention. Many countries established strict rules to ensure the food traceability “from farm to fork” to meet the demand of consumer safety and to ensure public health. Consequently, the concepts of controlled supply chain, brand of quality and traceability of food products have had a strong evolution. Companies in the food production sector must evolve and change their organizational and management chain to satisfy increasingly stringent government rules and to respond to the requirements of the market. From this point of view, NFC (Near Field Communication) has all the requirements to become the main technology for traceability in the various food sectors. This paper proposes a solution to gather information throughout the entire food supply chain and bring it directly to the consumer. The architecture consists of a complex identification system based on NFC tags, which cumulates data during all phases of the production process. The aim of this work is to keep track of the information generated during food processing, not only for traceability purposes, but also for enhancing and optimizing production. The data generated by the traceability system are collected in a cloud database through apps on Android smartphones. The information is accessible by the consumers through a public Android application. The pork supply chain has been used as an application example of the proposed methodology.

Unfair practices and illicit conduct in food supply chains in Slovenia

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The food supply chain in Slovenia is highly developed, but it involves unequally developed stakeholders with different bargaining power. Upon reviewing all stakeholders through participatory research, it is made clear that in the whole food supply chain, retail chains generally have the greatest and primary producers the smallest bargaining power. For this reason, in the process of regulating mutual relations in contractual commitments and mutual operations, unfair practices and illicit conduct often emerge, through which the parties with significant market power impose additional discounts, rebates and other contributions on the parties with smaller market power in order to improve their own financial management. Unfair practices and illicit conduct lead to the weakening of the entire food supply chain, so it is important to recognise such tendencies in the food chain. In this article, the autor would like to draw attention to the illicit conduct and unfair practices in Slovenia which are used by retail chains in their interpersonal relationships and their dealings with suppliers.</span></p>

Food Waste Avoidance Actions in Food Retailing: The Case of Denmark

ABSTRACTFood waste occurs throughout the entire food supply chain, from production to consumption of food in households. Retailers are in a unique position to contribute to food waste avoidance, not only by minimizing the amount of waste in their distribution channels but also by influencing consumer attitudes and behaviors. This explorative study aims to identify which food waste avoidance actions are conducted by retailers in Denmark, to which extent, and how they vary across food categories and supermarket chain. Based on an analysis of secondary and empirical data collected via observations at retail stores, the authors identify 22 food waste avoidance actions in Danish retail. The results provide new insights into food waste avoidance in retail. Based on the findings, suggestions for further research directions are developed that should serve to identify the most efficient customer targeted actions in the in-store setting and marketing of suboptimal foods.

A comparative analysis of vehicle-related greenhouse gas emissions between organic and conventional dairy production.

Agricultural industrialisation and globalisation have steadily increased the transportation of food across the world. In efforts to promote sustainability and self-sufficiency, organic milk producers in Sweden are required to produce a higher level of cattle feed on-farm in the hope that increased self-sufficiency will reduce reliance on external inputs and reduce transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. Using data collected from 20 conventional and 20 organic milk producers in Sweden this paper aims to assess the global warming impact of farmyard vehicles and the transportation of feed produced 'off-farm' in order to compare the impact of vehicle-related emissions from the different production methods. The findings show organic and conventional production methods have different vehicle-related emission outputs that vary according to a reliance on either road transportation or increased farmyard machinery use. Mechanical weeding is more fuel demanding than conventional agrichemical sprayers. However, artificial fertilising is one of the highest farmyard vehicle-related emitters. The general findings show organic milk production emits higher levels of farm vehicle-related emissions that fail to be offset by reduced emissions occurring from international transport emissions. This paper does not propose to cover a comprehensive supply chain carbon footprint for milk production or attempt to determine which method of production has the largest climatic impact. However, it does demonstrate that Sweden's legal requirements for organic producers to produce more feed on-farm to reduce transport emissions have brought emissions back within Sweden's greenhouse gas inventory and raises questions around the effectiveness of policies to reduce vehicle-related emissions. Further research is needed into the effectiveness of climate change mitigation on food production policies, in particular looking at various trade-offs that affects the entire food supply chain.