The internet of things in the food supply chain: adoption challenges

Multimodal Biosensing of Foodborne Pathogens

Microbial foodborne pathogens present significant challenges to public health and the food industry, requiring rapid and accurate detection methods to prevent infections and ensure food safety. Conventional single biosensing techniques often exhibit limitations in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and rapidity. In response, there has been a growing interest in multimodal biosensing approaches that combine multiple sensing techniques to enhance the efficacy, accuracy, and precision in detecting these pathogens. This review investigates the current state of multimodal biosensing technologies and their potential applications within the food industry. Various multimodal biosensing platforms, such as opto-electrochemical, optical nanomaterial, multiple nanomaterial-based systems, hybrid biosensing microfluidics, and microfabrication techniques are discussed. The review provides an in-depth analysis of the advantages, challenges, and future prospects of multimodal biosensing for foodborne pathogens, emphasizing its transformative potential for food safety and public health. This comprehensive analysis aims to contribute to the development of innovative strategies for combating foodborne infections and ensuring the reliability of the global food supply chain.

Linking microbial contamination to food spoilage and food waste: the role of smart packaging, spoilage risk assessments, and date labeling

Ensuring a safe and adequate food supply is a cornerstone of human health and food security. However, a significant portion of the food produced for human consumption is wasted annually on a global scale. Reducing harvest and postharvest food waste, waste during food processing, as well as food waste at the consumer level, have been key objectives of improving and maintaining sustainability. These issues can range from damage during processing, handling, and transport, to the use of inappropriate or outdated systems, and storage and packaging-related issues. Microbial growth and (cross)contamination during harvest, processing, and packaging, which causes spoilage and safety issues in both fresh and packaged foods, is an overarching issue contributing to food waste. Microbial causes of food spoilage are typically bacterial or fungal in nature and can impact fresh, processed, and packaged foods. Moreover, spoilage can be influenced by the intrinsic factors of the food (water activity, pH), initial load of the microorganism and its interaction with the surrounding microflora, and external factors such as temperature abuse and food acidity, among others. Considering this multifaceted nature of the food system and the factors driving microbial spoilage, there is an immediate need for the use of novel approaches to predict and potentially prevent the occurrence of such spoilage to minimize food waste at the harvest, post-harvest, processing, and consumer levels. Quantitative microbial spoilage risk assessment (QMSRA) is a predictive framework that analyzes information on microbial behavior under the various conditions encountered within the food ecosystem, while employing a probabilistic approach to account for uncertainty and variability. Widespread adoption of the QMSRA approach could help in predicting and preventing the occurrence of spoilage along the food chain. Alternatively, the use of advanced packaging technologies would serve as a direct prevention strategy, potentially minimizing (cross)contamination and assuring the safe handling of foods, in order to reduce food waste at the post-harvest and retail stages. Finally, increasing transparency and consumer knowledge regarding food date labels, which typically are indicators of food quality rather than food safety, could also contribute to reduced food waste at the consumer level. The objective of this review is to highlight the impact of microbial spoilage and (cross)contamination events on food loss and waste. The review also discusses some novel methods to mitigate food spoilage and food loss and waste, and ensure the quality and safety of our food supply.

Exploring the relationship between digitalization, resilient agri-food supply chain management practices and firm performance

Purpose

This study aims to explore the mediating role of digital technologies-based supply chain integrating (SCI) strategies on the agri-supply chain performance (SCP) and firm performance (FP). This research has introduced recently emerged digital technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT). Further, based on theoretical support and an extensive literature review, this research has proposed some hypotheses, which have been quantitatively validated for their significance.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual model was formulated based on an extensive literature review. Data for this research were gathered from a survey completed by 119 respondents from different departments of agri-firms. Further, partial least square (PLS)-based structured equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the proposed hypothetical model.

Findings

The results confirm that IoT-based digital technologies and supply chain processes (organization integration [OI], information sharing and customer integration [CI]) have a significant positive correlation. Furthermore, supply chain practices are positively associated with SCP. Finally, it has been found that FP is positively impacted by SCP.

Research limitations/implications

This research is used to analyse the mediating impacts of digital supply chain processes as a linking strategy for SCP and FP. For practical purposes, this research provides investment decisions for implementing digital technologies in SC strategies. The findings have proposed implications for managers and practitioners in agri-firms based on existing theories: contingency theory (CT) and relational view theory. Also, this study suggests the deployment of smarter electronically based tags and readers, which improve the data analytics capabilities based on auto-captured data. Thus, the availability of quality information improves the data-driven decisional capabilities of managers at company level.

Originality/value

This is a unique and original study exploring the relationship between digitalization, resilient agri-food supply chain (AFSC) management practices and firm performance. This research may be extended to other industries in view of the results from SCP and impact of digitalization.

Supply chain integration and firm performance in the COVID-19 era: the mediating role of resilience and robustness

Purpose

In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has become one of the most impactful disruptions which has imposed high levels of uncertainty on supply chains around the world. Supply chain integration (SCI) is highly recommended as an underlying mechanism that can facilitate the development of resilience and robustness as two dynamic capabilities. They can in turn positively influence firm performance and success during the disruptive conditions of COVID-19 era. The study aims to examine whether SCI as an enabler of resilience and robustness can improve firm performance during COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical model is developed to elaborate the relationship between SCI dimensions, resilience and robustness and firm’s operational and financial performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey method is then used to empirically examine the model using a sample of 94 companies in the food industry in the province of Tehran, Iran, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study makes several contributions. It provides a novel theoretical model on the relationship between SCI, resilience and robustness and firm performance and tests this model in a less-studied yet critical context (i.e. Iranian food industry) and during a disruptive era (i.e. COVID-19 pandemic).

Findings

The results support the positive effect of three SCI dimensions of internal, product and process integration on operational and financial performance during corona virus pandemic. Furthermore, internal and process integration have positive effects on resilience. Internal, product and process integration have positive effects on robustness. In addition, resilience mediates the effects of internal and product integration on both operational and financial performance, whereas robustness mediates the effect of internal and product integration on financial performance.

Research limitations/implications

This study was conducted in the Province of Tehran. To test and generalize the results, it is recommended to conduct this study in other places and countries.

Originality/value

These results highlight the importance of SCI dimensions as vital enablers of resilience and robustness and their consequent impact on firm’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Modeling traceability in food supply chain

Purpose

Currently, digital technology has been proposed as a new archetype for developing an effective traceability system in the perishable food supply chain (FSC). Implementation of such a system needs significant investment and the burden lies with the members of the supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact on the profit of the supply chain members due to the implementation of an effective traceability system with such a large investment. The study also tries to explore the impact of the implementation of such a system by coordination among the members through a cost-sharing mechanism.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-level supply chain that comprises a supplier and retailer is analyzed using a game-theoretic approach. The mathematical models are developed considering the scenario for an individual, centralized and both members invest using a cost-sharing mechanism. For each of the models, the impact of product selling price, information sensing price and quality improvement level on profit is analyzed through numerical analysis.

Findings

The study reveals that consumer involvement can be a strong motivation for the supply chain members to initiate investment in the traceability system. Further, from an investment perspective cost-sharing model is beneficial compared to the individual investment-bearing model. This mechanism can coordinate as well as benefit the FSC members. However, the model is less beneficial to the centralized model from profit and quality improvement levels.

Practical implications

Food wastage can be less from supplier and retailer perspectives. Moreover, consumers can purchase food items only after verifying their shipping conditions. Consequently the food safety scandals can be reduced remarkably.

Originality/value

Digital technology adoption in the perishable FSC is still considered emerging. The present study helps organizations to implement a traceability system in the perishable FSC through consumer involvement and a cost-sharing mechanism.

Prioritising enabling factors of Internet of things (IoT) adoption in digital supply chain

Purpose

This paper explores the role of Internet of things (IoT) enabling factors in adopting digital supply chain.

Design/methodology/approach

Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was used to rank performance measures and prioritise the enabling factors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to validate and support key research findings from the AHP analysis.

Findings

The results show that level of customer demand is the most important indicator in adopting IoT while the level of product/process flexibility is the least important. System integration and IoT infrastructure are the top two enabling factors in increasing the level of process stability, supply chain connectivity, and product/process flexibility, respectively. Furthermore, the study suggests that the enabling factors for IoT adoption are directly connected with organisational resources/technological capabilities that support the resource-based view theory. This research identified interdependencies between IoT enabling factors and key performance measures for IoT adoption success in managing the digital supply chain.

Practical implications

Supply chain managers can use the empirical findings of this study to prioritise IoT adoption, based on the relative importance of enabling factors and performance measures. The research findings are focused on broader supply chain practices of large companies rather than a specific industry and SMEs. Hence, any industry-specific adoption factors and SMEs were not evident from this study.

Originality/value

This research study empirically established priorities of enabling factors for IoT adoption, along with inter-dependencies among enabling factors as a basis for developing guidelines for IoT adoption.

Food Quality, Drug Safety, and Increasing Public Health Measures in Supply Chain Management

Over the last decade, there has been an increased interest in public health measures concerning food quality and drug safety in supply chains and logistics operations. Against this backdrop, this study systematically reviewed the extant literature to identify gaps in studying food quality and drug safety, the proposed solutions to these issues, and potential future research directions. This study utilized content analysis. The objectives of the review were to (1) identify the factors affecting food quality and possible solutions to improve results, (2) analyze the factors that affect drug safety and identify ways to mitigate them through proper management; and (3) establish integrated supply chains for food and drugs by implementing modern technologies, followed by one another to ensure a multi-layered cross-verification cascade and resource management at the different phases to ensure quality, safety, and sustainability for the benefit of public health. This review investigated and identified the most recent trends and technologies used for successfully integrated supply chains that can guarantee food quality and drug safety. Using appropriate keywords, 298 articles were identified, and 205 were shortlisted for the analysis. All analysis and conclusions are based on the available literature. The outcomes of this paper identify new research directions in public health and supply chain management.

Consumer acceptance of new food trends resulting from the fourth industrial revolution technologies: A narrative review of literature and future perspectives

The growing consumer awareness of climate change and the resulting food sustainability issues have led to an increasing adoption of several emerging food trends. Some of these trends have been strengthened by the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution (or Industry 4.0), and its innovations and technologies that have fundamentally reshaped and transformed current strategies and prospects for food production and consumption patterns. In this review a general overview of the industrial revolutions through a food perspective will be provided. Then, the current knowledge base regarding consumer acceptance of eight traditional animal-proteins alternatives (e.g., plant-based foods and insects) and more recent trends (e.g., cell-cultured meat and 3D-printed foods) will be updated. A special focus will be given to the impact of digital technologies and other food Industry 4.0 innovations on the shift toward greener, healthier, and more sustainable diets. Emerging food trends have promising potential to promote nutritious and sustainable alternatives to animal-based products. This literature narrative review showed that plant-based foods are the largest portion of alternative proteins but intensive research is being done with other sources (notably the insects and cell-cultured animal products). Recent technological advances are likely to have significant roles in enhancing sensory and nutritional properties, improving consumer perception of these emerging foods. Thus, consumer acceptance and consumption of new foods are predicted to continue growing, although more effort should be made to make these food products more convenient, nutritious, and affordable, and to market them to consumers positively emphasizing their safety and benefits.

Digitalization of the supply chain: transformation factors

Purpose

There is an increasing interest in the supply chain’s digitalization, yet the topic is still in the preliminary stages of academic research. The academic literature has no consensus and is still limited to research assessing the supply chain’s digitalization of organizations. This study aims to explore the supply chain digitalization drivers to understand the emerging phenomena. More specifically, the authors devised from the literature the most common factors in assessing the readiness in scaling supply chain digitalization.

Design/methodology/approach

This study followed a five-phased systematic literature review (SLR) methodology in this research: designing, analyzing, conducting, writing and assessing the quality of the review. The SLR is beneficial for justifying future research regardless of the complex process that requires dealing with high-level databases, information filtering and relevancies of the content. Through analysis of 347 titles and abstracts and 40 full papers, the authors showed and discussed the supply chain digitalization: transformation factors.

Findings

The results generated three main themes: technology, people and processes. The study also generated ten subthemes/primary drivers for assessing the readiness for supply chain digitalization in organizations: IT infrastructure, cybersecurity systems, digitalization reskilling and upskilling, digitalization culture, top management support, digitalization and innovation strategy, integrated supply chain, digital innovation management, big data management and data analytics and government regulations. The importance of each factor was discussed, and future research agenda was presented.

Research limitations/implications

While the key drivers of the supply chain digitalization were identified, there is still a need to study the statistical correlation to confirm the interrelationships among factors. This study is also limited by the articles available in the databases and content extraction.

Practical implications

This study supports decision-makers in understanding the critical drivers in digitalizing the supply chain. Once these factors are studied and comprehended, managers and decision-makers could better anticipate and allocate the proper resources to embark on the digitalization journey and make informed decisions.

Originality/value

The digitalization of the supply chain is more critical nowadays due to the global disruptions caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the surge of organizations moving toward the digital economy. There is a gap between the digital transformation pilot studies and implementation. The themes and factors unearthed in this study will serve as a foundation and guidelines for further theoretical research and practical implications.

A Systematic Review of Internet of Things Adoption in Organizations: Taxonomy, Benefits, Challenges and Critical Factors

Despite the evident growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) applications, IoT deployments in organizations remain in their early stages. This paper aims to systematically review and analyze the existing literature on IoT adoption in organizations. The extant literature was identified using five electronic databases from 2015 to July 2021. Seventy-seven articles have met the eligibility criteria and were analyzed to answer the research questions. This study produced a coherent taxonomy that can serve as a framework for future research on IoT adoption in organizations. This paper presents an overview of the essential features of this emerging technology in terms of IoT adoption benefits and challenges in organizations. Existing theoretical models have been analyzed to identify the factors that influence IoT adoption and to understand the future requirements for widespread IoT adoption in organizations. Six critical factors affecting and playing a key role in IoT adoption in organizations were identified based on the critical review findings: technological, organizational, environmental, human, benefit, and value. Decision-makers and developers can prioritize these critical factors and progressively improve their development to enhance IoT adoption efficiency. This review also includes an in-depth analysis to bridge gaps and provide a comprehensive overview to further understand this research field.

The implications of Industry 4.0 on supply chains amid the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

Background: COVID-19 has caused significant disruptions in supply chains. It has increased the demand for products and decreased the supply of raw materials. This has interrupted many production processes. The emerging technologies of Industry 4.0 have the potential to streamline supply chains by improving time-sensitive customized solutions during this emergency.

Purpose: The study identifies the core technologies of Industry 4.0 and the role and impact of these technologies in managing the disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak in strengthening the supply chain resilience.

Design/methodology/approach: An extensive literature review using the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” method was carried out on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains and Industry 4.0 technologies. The study was undertaken by selecting keywords validated by experts, and a search was conducted in the Scopus, ProQuest, and Google Scholar databases. Publications from the leading journals on these topics were selected. The bibliographical search resulted in 1484 articles, followed by multiple layers of filtering. Finally, the most pertinent articles were selected for review, and a total of 42 articles were analyzed.

Findings: The findings of the study showed that the majority of the articles emphasized the digitalization of supply chain management, acknowledging the fundamentals, applications, and prospects, revealing the drivers and challenges of Industry 4.0 technologies to manage disruptions. Most of the authors identified IoT, big data, cloud computing, additive manufacturing, and blockchain to maintain the supply chain resilience.

Originality/value: Existing literature on epidemics lacks the basics and practices of utilizing Industry 4.0 technologies in the supply chain recovery process. To fill this research gap, the study summarizes the potential of Industry 4.0 technologies to lessen supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19. The study findings are valuable for policymakers and practitioners and contribute to supply chain management studies.

Exploring the experts’ perceptions of barriers to using internet of things for chronic disease management in Iran

Purpose

Internet of things (IoT) promises advantages in different sectors, especially the health-care sector. Due to its capabilities for chronic disease management, IoT has attracted the attention of researchers. Nowadays, there is research that focuses on the use of IoT for chronic disease management. However, the use of IoT in various contexts faces different barriers. This paper aims to explore Iranian experts’ conceptions of the barriers to using IoT in Iran regarding its application for chronic disease management.

Design/methodology/approach

This study follows a phenomenographic method to investigate Iranian experts’ conceptions of the barriers to using IoT in Iran regarding its application for chronic disease management.

Findings

The results show that there are four categories of description (governance, technical, economic and social barriers) that vary among experts’ conceptions.

Originality/value

The findings of the present work could provide valuable insights for managers and policymakers who want to address IoT barriers.

Enhancing Value Co-Creation Through the Lens of DART Model, Innovation, and Digital Technology: An Integrative Supply Chain Resilient Model

The global supply chain process has been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, firms search for factors that influence supply chain resilience and improve firm operational performance. The current research develops an integrated resilient supply chain model that combines factors underpinned DART model, innovation, digital technology, and value co-creation to investigate supply chain resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research framework was empirically tested with a data set of 329 responses from employees working in logistics firms. the study find that supply chain resilience is determined by value co-creation, the DART model, innovation, and digital technology. The factors underpinning the DART model, including dialogue, access, risk assessment, and transparency, have positively impacted value co-creation. The structural model shows that dialogue has a positive impact on developing value co-creation between manufacturing firms and stakeholders, Empirical investigation revealed that value co-creation in supply chain operations is estimated by dialogue, access, risk assessment, transparency, innovation, and digital technology and revealed substantial variance R^2 71.9% in measuring value co-creation. This research is significant as it develops a resilient supply chain model with the combination of the DART model, innovation, digital technology, and value co-creation and investigates supply chain resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although current research contributes to theory, practice, and method, disclosing research limitations opens numerous avenues for future researchers. This study does not claim to include all factors that impact the value co-creation process in supply chain operations. For instance, other factors, such as IT infrastructure, commitment, and integrative quality, may positively influence value co-creation. Second, supply chain resilience is determined by value co-creation and network capability. Therefore, the research encourages academicians and policymakers to investigate the supply chain resilience phenomenon with other market-oriented facts. future researchers are suggested to investigate the current research model in longitudinal method

Digitalization in Food Supply Chains: A Bibliometric Review and Key-Route Main Path Analysis

Technological advances such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, social media, and geographic information systems represent a building block of the digital transformation that supports the resilience of the food supply chain (FSC) and increases its efficiency. This paper reviews the literature surrounding digitalization in FSCs. A bibliometric and key-route main path analysis was carried out to objectively and analytically uncover the knowledge development in digitalization within the context of sustainable FSCs. The research began with the selection of 2140 articles published over nearly five decades. Then, the articles were examined according to several bibliometric metrics such as year of publication, countries, institutions, sources, authors, and keywords frequency. A keyword co-occurrence network was generated to cluster the relevant literature. Findings of the review and bibliometric analysis indicate that research at the intersection of technology and the FSC has gained substantial interest from scholars. On the basis of keyword co-occurrence network, the literature is focused on the role of information communication technology for agriculture and food security, food waste and circular economy, and the merge of the Internet of Things and blockchain in the FSC. The analysis of the key-route main path uncovers three critical periods marking the development of technology-enabled FSCs. The study offers scholars a better understanding of digitalization within the agri-food industry and the current knowledge gaps for future research. Practitioners may find the review useful to remain ahead of the latest discussions of technology-enabled FSCs. To the authors’ best knowledge, the current study is one of the few endeavors to explore technology-enabled FSCs using a comprehensive sample of journal articles published during the past five decades.