Building a Resilient, Sustainable, and Healthier Food Supply through Innovation and Technology

Author(s):  
David Julian McClements ◽  
Rodolphe Barrangou ◽  
Colin Hill ◽  
Josef L. Kokini ◽  
Mary Ann Lila ◽  
...  

The modern food supply faces many challenges. The global population continues to grow and people are becoming wealthier, so the food production system must respond by creating enough high-quality food to feed everyone with minimal damage to our environment. The number of people suffering or dying from diet-related chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer, continues to rise, which is partly linked to overconsumption of highly processed foods, especially high-calorie orrapidly digestible foods. After falling for many years, the number of people suffering from starvation or malnutrition is rising, and this has been exacerbated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. The highly integrated food supply chains that spread around the world are susceptible to disruptions due to policy changes, economic stresses, and natural disasters, as highlighted by the recent pandemic. In this perspective article, written by members of the Editorial Committee of the Annual Review of Food Science and Technology, we highlight some of the major challenges confronting the modern food supply chain as well as how innovations in policy and technology can be used to address them. Pertinent technological innovations include robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, advanced diagnostics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, gene editing, vertical farming, and soft matter physics. Many of these technologies are already being employed across the food chain by farmers, distributors, manufacturers, and consumers to improve the quality, nutrition, safety, and sustainability of the food supply. These innovations are required to stimulate the development and implementation of new technologies to ensure a more equitable, resilient, and efficient food production system. Where appropriate, these technologies should be carefully tested before widespread implementation so that proper risk–benefit analyses can be carried out. They can then be employed without causing unforeseen adverse consequences. Finally, it is important to actively engage all stakeholders involved in the food supply chain throughout the development and testing of these new technologies to support their adoption if proven safe and effective. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Food Science and Technology, Volume 12 is March 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1223
Author(s):  
Ilianna Kollia ◽  
Jack Stevenson ◽  
Stefanos Kollias

This paper provides a review of an emerging field in the food processing sector, referring to efficient and safe food supply chains, ’from farm to fork’, as enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The field is of great significance from economic, food safety and public health points of views. The paper focuses on effective food production, food maintenance energy management and food retail packaging labeling control, using recent advances in machine learning. Appropriate deep neural architectures are adopted and used for this purpose, including Fully Convolutional Networks, Long Short-Term Memories and Recurrent Neural Networks, Auto-Encoders and Attention mechanisms, Latent Variable extraction and clustering, as well as Domain Adaptation. Three experimental studies are presented, illustrating the ability of these AI methodologies to produce state-of-the-art performance in the whole food supply chain. In particular, these concern: (i) predicting plant growth and tomato yield in greenhouses, thus matching food production to market needs and reducing food waste or food unavailability; (ii) optimizing energy consumption across large networks of food retail refrigeration systems, through optimal selection of systems that can be shut-down and through prediction of the respective food de-freezing times, during peaks of power demand load; (iii) optical recognition and verification of food consumption expiry date in automatic inspection of retail packaged food, thus ensuring safety of food and people’s health.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1088
Author(s):  
Ten-Suz Chen ◽  
Yung-Fu Huang ◽  
Ming-Wei Weng ◽  
Manh-Hoang Do

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has witnessed remarkable attention in academic studies as well as being widely conducted in different industries globally. This specific case was chosen as one of the biggest dairy companies that may be represented for Vietnam dairy supply chain management. This research aims to integrate CSR initiatives into food supply chain management to clarify the optimal replenishment policy, paying close attention to the relationship between midstream manufacturers and final customers. The classical economic production quantity model has been employed, relying on the two-stage assembly production system. The three parameters that contribute to the total profit formulation that have been considered consist of the social charity amount for per unit selling, the unit wholesale price of the manufacturer, and the return rate of used goods from the customer. The study has stressed that there is a significant impact from implementing CSR initiatives on the enterprise’s inventory policy that leads to enhance the firm’s financial performance.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somdip Dey ◽  
Suman Saha ◽  
Amit Singh ◽  
Klaus D. Mcdonald-Maier

<div><div><div><p>Food safety is an important issue in today’s world. Traditional agri-food production system doesn’t offer easy traceability of the produce at any point of the supply chain, and hence, during a food-borne outbreak, it is very difficult to sift through food production data to track produce and origin of the outbreak. In recent years, blockchain based food production system has resolved this challenge, however, none of the proposed methodologies makes the food production data easily accessible, traceable and verifiable by consumers or producers using mobile/edge devices. In this paper, we propose FoodSQRBlock (Food Safety Quick Response Block), a blockchain technology based framework, which digitizes the food production information, and makes it easily accessible, traceable and verifiable by the consumers and producers by using QR codes. We also propose a large scale integration of FoodSQRBlock in the cloud to show the feasibility and scalability of the framework, and experimental evaluation to prove that.</p></div></div></div>


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-48
Author(s):  
Sławomir Jarka

The purpose of the article is to determine the importance of blockchain technology in food supply chain management. A practical reference to the adopted research aim was to indicate the usefulness of blockchain technology to build trust between food chain stakeholders. Research shows that the properties of blockchain technology can enable it to solve many problems and shortcomings of the current food production system. Its added value is primarily a significant increase in transparency of operations among all stakeholders using big data in all parts of the food chain.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-31
Author(s):  
E. S. Apata ◽  
O. E. Fashina ◽  
G. A. Adeleke ◽  
B. G. Otaki ◽  
K. O. Adeyemi ◽  
...  

Coronavirus had been in existence for many years, but its effects has not been so evident as the whole world experienced recently. It represents an unprecedented emergency and grave societal threat. The better way to cure the emergence disease is by protecting public health. However, governments, policy makers and the international community must quickly need to act, recognize and attempt to mitigate the negative impacts (current and potential) of the pandemic and related response efforts on key sectors that contribute to food security, nutrition and livelihoods. The livestock sector is a key contributor to these areas, especially for the world's most vulnerable populations. In the light of recent challenges in food supply chain, there is now considerable concern about the food production, processing, distribution, and demand. COVID-19 resulted in the movement restrictions of workers, changes in demand of consumers, closure of food production facilities, restricted food trade policies and financial pressures in food supply chain. The effects of COVID-19 on the livestock sector are still largely unquantified and yet to be fully felt. Formal assessments have not yet been possible, but current observations reveal disruptions to livestock value chains. Lessons from past epidemics indicate these disruptions are likely to grow, along with their dire, socio- economic consequences. Moreover, considering the doubt on how these factors will play out in various areas affected especially meat processing and distribution in the years to come from the bulk of discussion in this review.     Le coronavirus existait depuis de nombreuses années, mais ses effets n'ont pas été aussi évidents que le monde entier l'a récemment expérimenté. Cela représente une urgence sans précédent et une grave menace pour la société. La meilleure façon de guérir la maladie émergente est de protéger la santé publique. Cependant, les gouvernements, les décideurs et la communauté internationale doivent rapidement agir, reconnaître et tenter d'atténuer les impacts négatifs (actuels et potentiels) de la pandémie et des efforts de riposte connexes sur les secteurs clés qui contribuent à la sécurité alimentaire, à la nutrition et aux moyens de subsistance. Le secteur de l'élevage est un contributeur clé dans ces domaines, en particulier pour les populations les plus vulnérables du monde. À la lumière des défis récents de la chaîne d'approvisionnement alimentaire, la production, la transformation, la distribution et la demande des aliments suscitent désormais des i nquiétudes considérables. Le COVID-19 a entraîné des restrictions de mouvement des travailleurs, des changements dans la demande des consommateurs, la fermeture des installations de production alimentaire, des politiques commerciales restreintes et des pressions financières dans la chaîne d'approvisionnement alimentaire. Les effets du COVID-19 sur le secteur du bétail sont encore largement non quantifiés et ne sont pas encore pleinement ressentis. Les évaluations formelles n'ont pas encore été possibles, mais les observations actuelles révèlent des perturbations dans les chaînes de valeur de l'élevage. Les leçons des épidémies passées indiquent que ces perturbations sont susceptibles de se développer, ainsi que leurs conséquences socio- économiques désastreuses. De plus, la prise en compte du doute sur la manière dont ces facteurs joueront dans divers domaines touchés, en particulier la transformation et la distribution de la viande dans les années à venir, constitue l'essentiel de la discussion dans cette revue.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
María Aránzazu Sulé Alonso ◽  
Tea Rushit ◽  
Elvira Delgado-Márquez

Humankind has faced various pandemics in history. The food supply chain is one of the foremost vital sectors of the economy, and COVID-19 has had a clear bearing on it from the field to the consumer. In the light of recent challenges in the food supply chain, there is currently considerable concern regarding food production, processing, distribution, and demand. COVID-19 resulted in the movement restrictions of staff, changes in the demands of consumers, closure of food production facilities, restrictive food trade policies, and monetary pressures in the food supply chain.&nbsp; This study describes the impact of the COVID-19 health crisis on people&rsquo;s interests, opinions, and behaviour towards food. Additionally, an online questionnaire (Spanish population, n&nbsp;=&nbsp;232) studied the changes in food shopping habits during the pandemic. To try to cover the whole L&eacute;on territory and reach the greatest number of persons through mobile phones, tablets, and computers, the questionnaire was created using the Google Forms tool and distributed using instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, social networking sites such as LinkedIn and ResearchGate, and email through snowball sampling. The statistical analysis was carried out under the SPSS programme. The results are presented in the form of means and distributions. The differences between subgroups have been evaluated using student&rsquo;s t-test. The level of statistical significance used in all cases was p &lt; 0.05. This study is focused on evaluating changes in food consumption habits of the Spanish adult population throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. The study is supported by a web-based survey targeting the adult general population. From this study, we are able to conclude that the studied Spanish adult population is extremely close to from having good healthy dietary habits, considering the Mediterranean Diet as a reference of healthy uptake. An improvement of dietary behaviours throughout the COVID-19 confinement has been discovered. Health-related food selections involved increased intake of fruits, vegetables, and legumes and decreased intake of red meat, alcohol, fried foods, or pastries compared to their pre-pandemic habits.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 167-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serpil Aday ◽  
Mehmet Seckin Aday

Abstract A pandemic is not a new event encountered in the history of humanity because mankind has faced various pandemics in history. The common point of pandemics is their serious negative effects on the global economy. Considering the food supply chain, one of the most important sectors of the economy, it has been seen that COVID-19 has an impact on the whole process from the field to the consumer. In the light of recent challenges in food supply chain, there is now considerable concern about food production, processing, distribution, and demand. COVID-19 resulted in the movement restrictions of workers, changes in demand of consumers, closure of food production facilities, restricted food trade policies, and financial pressures in food supply chain. Therefore, governments should facilitate the movement of workers and agri-food products. In addition, small farmers or vulnerable people should be supported financially. Facilities should change the working conditions and maintain the health and safety of employees by altering safety measures. Food protectionist policies should be avoided to prevent an increase in food prices. In conclusion, each country must realize the severity of the situation and sometimes should tighten or loosen the measures according to the spread of the pandemic. The supply chain also should be flexible enough to respond to the challenges in the food supply chain. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the agriculture and food sector and to summarize the recommendations required to reduce and control the effect of the pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somdip Dey ◽  
Suman Saha ◽  
Amit Singh ◽  
Klaus D. Mcdonald-Maier

<div><div><div><p>Food safety is an important issue in today’s world. Traditional agri-food production system doesn’t offer easy traceability of the produce at any point of the supply chain, and hence, during a food-borne outbreak, it is very difficult to sift through food production data to track produce and origin of the outbreak. In recent years, blockchain based food production system has resolved this challenge, however, none of the proposed methodologies makes the food production data easily accessible, traceable and verifiable by consumers or producers using mobile/edge devices. In this paper, we propose FoodSQRBlock (Food Safety Quick Response Block), a blockchain technology based framework, which digitizes the food production information, and makes it easily accessible, traceable and verifiable by the consumers and producers by using QR codes. We also propose a large scale integration of FoodSQRBlock in the cloud to show the feasibility and scalability of the framework, and experimental evaluation to prove that.</p></div></div></div>


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambika Prasad Mishra ◽  
Jyoti Prakash Sahoo

The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought about another age on world as the human civilization is restricted in many aspects of everyday lives. There is no exception in the sector of food production and the supply chain of food. Due to constraints on demand, shutting of food production facilities, financial limitations, enterprise operations and delivery of different food items have been interrupted in the food supply chain. Every nation must comprehend the importance of the situation according to the spreading scenario of the ongoing pandemic. The probability of transmission via the food sector is regarded inconsequential, and the public authorities do not believe it necessary to follow COVID into workplaces. The unfavourable effects on the climate, the food framework and the people of the foodstuffs network are evident. An installation for the food supply chain should focus on amenities such as maintaining the safety and health of employees and changing working circumstances. This paper aims at discussing the effects of COVID-19 on the socio-economic status of human being including the negative impacts on the agriculture and food supply chain.


Author(s):  
Ilianna Kollia ◽  
Jack Stevenson ◽  
Stefanos Kollias

This paper provides a review of an emerging field in the food processing sector, referring to efficient and safe food supply chains, ’from farm to fork’, as enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Recent advances in machine and deep learning are used for effective food production, energy management and food labeling. Appropriate deep neural architectures are adopted and used for this purpose, including Fully Convolutional Networks, Long Short-Term Memories and Recurrent Neural Networks, Auto-Encoders and Attention mechanisms, Latent Variable extraction and clustering, as well as Domain Adaptation. Three experimental studies are presented, illustrating the ability of these AI methodologies to produce state-of-the-art performance in the whole food supply chain. In particular, these concern: (i) predicting plant growth and tomato yield in greenhouses, thus matching food production to market needs and reducing food waste or food unavailability; (ii) optimizing energy consumption across large networks of food retail refrigeration systems, through optimal selection of systems that can get shut-down and through prediction of the respective food de-freezing times, during peaks of power demand load; (iii) optical recognition and verification of food consumption expiry date in automatic inspection of retail packaged food, thus ensuring safety of food and people’s health.


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