scholarly journals A Year following the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Existing Challenges and Ways the Food Industry Has Been Impacted

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 2389
Author(s):  
Márcio Vargas-Ramella ◽  
José M. Lorenzo ◽  
Benjamin M. Bohrer ◽  
Mirian Pateiro ◽  
Jesús J. Cantalapiedra ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant impacts for nearly all industrial and societal sectors in the world. As closures and social distancing mandates were implemented to help control the spread of the novel coronavirus designated as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the food industry was immensely affected. This review explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food supply chain from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint and provides perspectives on the consequences on food safety and food security, a risk assessment on human–animal interactions, and considers logistical/protocol adjustments required for the food industry. While foodborne transmission of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is not a significant factor for food safety as direct transmission of the virus through food products is not evident, food security has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic threatens food accessibility, especially for vulnerable populations of people, through its effects on food cost and infrastructure, food distribution and public transit access, and social inequities. Currently, global interest for COVID-19 is focused on human health and rightfully so, but adverse effects on the food supply chain are already evident and will likely continue to occur for several years after the pandemic is over, let alone if other global health pandemics of this magnitude surface in upcoming years. Uncertainties over the novel coronavirus have interrupted global trade and supply chains. The pandemic has underlined the importance of a robust and resilient food system, which presents an unprecedented challenge for competent authorities in upcoming years.

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Saad Nurul Eiman ◽  
Firdaus Muhammad Nurul Azmi Aida ◽  
Trias Mahmudiono ◽  
Siva Raseetha

The novel coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19, is a recent disease that has struck the entire world. This review is conducted to study the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to food safety as well as the food supply chain. The pandemic has caused various changes around the world as numerous countries and governments have implemented lockdowns and restrictions to help curb the rising cases due to COVID-19. However, these restrictions have impacted many aspects of everyday life, including the economic sectors such as the food industry. An overview of the current COVID-19 situation in Malaysia was discussed in this review along with its implication on food safety and food supply chain. This is followed by a discussion on the definition of food safety, the impact of the pandemic to food safety, as well as the steps to be taken to ensure food safety. Hygiene of food handlers, complete vaccination requirement, kitchen sanitation and strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) should be in place to ensure the safety of food products, either in food industries or small scale business. Additionally, the aspect of the food supply chain was also discussed, including the definition of the food supply chain and the impact of COVID-19 to the food supply chain. Travel restriction and lack of manpower had impacted the usual operation and production activities. Lack of customers and financial difficulties to sustain business operational costs had even resulted in business closure. As a conclusion, this article provides insight into crucial factors that need to be considered to effectively contain COVID-19 cases and highlights the precaution methods to be taken through continuous monitoring and implementation by Malaysian government.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Armstrong ◽  
Lucy King ◽  
Robin Clifford ◽  
Mark Jitlal

Food and You 2 is a biannual survey which measures self-reported consumer knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to food safety and other food issues amongst adults in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The survey is primarily carried out online using a methodology known as ‘push-to-web’. Fieldwork was conducted between 20 November 2020 and 21 January 2021. A total of 5,900 adults from 3,955 households across England, Wales and Northern Ireland completed the survey. Topics covered in the Food and You 2: Wave 2 Key Findings report include: Trust in FSA and the food supply chain Concerns about food Food security Eating out and takeaways Food allergy, intolerance, and other hypersensitivities Food safety in the home


Author(s):  
Steven Richards ◽  
Michael Vassalos

The emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the associated economic disrup­tions have challenged local food producers, distributors, retailers, and restaurants since March 2020. COVID-19 was a stress test for the U.S. local food supply chain, exposing vulnerabilities whose impacts have varied by region and sector. Some local producers saw sales fall in 2020 due to COVID-19 restric­tions and consumer foot traffic changes (O’Hara, Woods, Dutton, & Stavely, 2021). In other areas, local food producers were able to pivot from collapsing market channels by finding opportunities elsewhere (Thilmany, Canales, Low, & Boys, 2020).


The conventional Food Supply Chain Management (FSCM) faces a variety of provocation such as ambiguity, security, cost, complication and quality concerns. To resolve these issues, supply chain must be precise. A challenging assignment in today’s food industry is distributing the high quality of foods throughout the supply chain management. In this paper, proposes an efficient Bayes Classifiers Algorithm which integrated with FSCM using Internet of Things (IoT) to allow tracking, tracing and managing the entire process of food supply chain such as supplier, exporter and customers. The objective of this paper is to determine the food safety and to optimize chronological data produced to analyze the effective possibility of future assump- tions. It also aims to foods carrying from the manufacturers to the customers with help of IoT technologies to bond the producer to the customer with delivery of high class of food products. IoT based Food Supply Chain Traceability is utilized t o data transaction effectively with indeterminate, uncertain and insufficient information. So the proposed efficient Bayes Classifiers Algorithm will be capable to overcome all provocation of conventional supply chain and afford secure background and food safety for FSCM process using IoT technology.


Biosensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Weimin Zhang ◽  
Huiyu He ◽  
Lin Zhu ◽  
Guozhen Liu ◽  
Long Wu

Understanding food safety hazard risks is essential to avoid potential negative heath impacts in the food supply chain in a post-COVID-19 pandemic era. Development of strategies for virus direction in foods plays an important role in food safety and verification. Early warning, tracing, and detection should be implemented as an integrated system in order to mitigate thecoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, in which the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is critical as it not only concerns screening of populations but also monitoring of possible contaminated sources such as the food supply chain. In this review, we point out the consequences in different aspects of our daily life in the post-COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of the food supply chain and the food industry. We summarize the possible transmission routes of COVID-19 in the food supply chain before exploring the development of corresponding detection tools of SARS-CoV-2. Accordingly, we compare different detection methods for the virus in foods, including different pretreatments of food matrices in the virus detection. Finally, the future perspectives are proposed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca K. Davidson ◽  
Wilson Antunes ◽  
Elisabeth H. Madslien ◽  
José Belenguer ◽  
Marco Gerevini ◽  
...  

Purpose Consumer confidence in the European food industry has been shaken by a number of recent scandals due to food fraud and accidental contamination, reminding the authors that deliberate incidents can occur. Food defence methods aim to prevent or mitigate deliberate attacks on the food supply chain but are not a legal requirement. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how proactive and reactive food defence practices can help prevent or mitigate malicious attacks on the food chain and also food fraud, food crime and food safety. The authors look at how food defence differs from food safety and how it contributes to food supply chain integrity. Design/methodology/approach Food defence has been the focus of two different EU FP7 security projects, EDEN and SNIFFER. Food industry stakeholders participated in workshops and demonstrations on food defence and relevant technology was tested in different food production scenarios. Findings Food industry end-users reported a lack of knowledge regarding food defence practices. They wished for further guidelines and training on risk assessment as well as access to validated test methods. Novel detection tools and methods showed promise with authentication, identification, measurement, assessment and control at multiple levels of the food supply chain prior to distribution and retail. Practical implications The prevention of a contamination incident, prior to retail, costs less than dealing with a large foodborne disease outbreak. Food defence should therefore be integral to food supply chain integrity and not just an afterthought in the wake of an incident. Originality/value It is argued that food defence practices have a vital role to play across the board in unintentional and intentional food contamination incidents. The application of these methods can help ensure food supply chain integrity.


Foods ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fien Minnens ◽  
Niels Lucas Luijckx ◽  
Wim Verbeke

One of the biggest challenges facing the food industry is assuring food integrity. Dealing with complex food integrity issues requires a multi-dimensional approach. Preventive actions and early reactive responses are key for the food supply chain. Information sharing could facilitate the detection and prevention of food integrity issues. This study investigates attitudes towards a food integrity information sharing system (FI-ISS) among stakeholders in the European food supply chain. Insights into stakeholders’ interest in participating and their conditions for joining an FI-ISS are assessed. The stakeholder consultation consisted of three rounds. During the first round, a total of 143 food industry stakeholders—covering all major food sectors susceptible to food integrity issues—participated in an online quantitative survey between November 2017 and February 2018. The second round, an online qualitative feedback survey in which the findings were presented, received feedback from 61 stakeholders from the food industry, food safety authorities and the science community. Finally, 37 stakeholders discussed the results in further detail during an interactive workshop in May 2018. Three distinct groups of industry stakeholders were identified based on reported frequency of occurrence and likelihood of detecting food integrity issues. Food industry stakeholders strongly support the concept of an FI-ISS, with an attitude score of 4.49 (standard deviation (S.D.) = 0.57) on a 5-point scale, and their willingness to participate is accordingly high (81%). Consensus exists regarding the advantages an FI-ISS can yield towards detection and prevention. A stakeholder’s perception of the advantages was identified as a predictor of their intention to join an FI-ISS, while their perception of the disadvantages and the perceived risk of food integrity issues were not. Medium-sized companies perceive the current detection of food integrity issues as less likely compared to smaller and large companies. Interestingly, medium-sized companies also have lower intentions to join an FI-ISS. Four key success factors for an FI-ISS are defined, more specifically with regards to (1) the actors to be involved in a system, (2) the information to be shared, (3) the third party to manage the FI-ISS and (4) the role of food safety authorities. Reactions diverged concerning the required level of transparency, the type of data that stakeholders might be willing to share in an FI-ISS and the role authorities can have within an FI-ISS.


Author(s):  
Zhaohui Wu ◽  
Madeleine Elinor Pullman

Food supply chain management is becoming a critical management and public policy agenda. Climate change, growing demand, and shifting patterns of food production, delivery, and consumption have elicited a series of new challenges, such as food security, safety, and system resiliency. This chapter first introduces the typical players in a food supply chain and examines the global food system characterized by consolidation and industrialization. It then discusses some critical topics of the sustainable food supply chain that aim to address these challenges. These topics include traceability, transparency, certification and standards, and alternatives to industrialized food systems, including cooperatives, community-supported agriculture, and roles of small and medium-sized growers in regenerative agriculture. The chapter ends with a discussion of several important emerging logistics management topics, including last-mile delivery, new technology, and cold chain management.


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