Development and evaluation on a wireless multi-gas-sensors system for improving traceability and transparency of table grape cold chain

There is increasing requirement to improve traceability and transparency of table grapes cold chain. Key traceability indicators including temperature, humidity and gas microenvironments (e.g., CO2, O2, and SO2) based on table grape cold chain management need to be monitored and controlled. This paper presents a Wireless Multi-Gas-Sensors System (WGS2) as an effective real-time cold chain monitoring system, which consists of three units: (1) the WMN which applies the 433 MHz as the radio frequency to increase the transmission performance and forms a wireless sensor network; (2) the WAN which serves as the intermediary to connect the users and the sensor nodes to keep the sensor data without delay by the GPRS remote transmission module; (3) the signal processing unit which contains embedded software to drive the hardware to normal operation and shelf life prediction for table grapes. Then the study evaluates the WGS2 in a cold chain scenario and analyses the monitoring data. The results show that the WGS2 is effective in monitoring quality, and improving transparency and traceability of table grape cold chains. Its deploy ability and efficiency in implantation can enable the establishment of a more efficient, transparent and traceable table grape supply chain.N/

Recent Advances in Reducing Food Losses in the Supply Chain of Fresh Agricultural Produce

Fruits and vegetables are highly nutritious agricultural produce with tremendous human health benefits. They are also highly perishable and as such are easily susceptible to spoilage, leading to a reduction in quality attributes and induced food loss. Cold chain technologies have over the years been employed to reduce the quality loss of fruits and vegetables from farm to fork. However, a high amount of losses (≈50%) still occur during the packaging, transportation, and storage of these fresh agricultural produce. This study highlights the current state-of-the-art of various advanced tools employed to reducing the quality loss of fruits and vegetables during the packaging, storage, and transportation cold chain operations, including the application of imaging technology, spectroscopy, multi-sensors, electronic nose, radio frequency identification, printed sensors, acoustic impulse response, and mathematical models. It is shown that computer vision, hyperspectral imaging, multispectral imaging, spectroscopy, X-ray imaging, and mathematical models are well established in monitoring and optimizing process parameters that affect food quality attributes during cold chain operations. We also identified the Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual representation models of a particular fresh produce (digital twins) as emerging technologies that can help monitor and control the uncharted quality evolution during its postharvest life. These advances can help diagnose and take measures against potential problems affecting the quality of fresh produce in the supply chains. Plausible future pathways to further develop these emerging technologies and help in the significant reduction of food losses in the supply chain of fresh produce are discussed. Future research should be directed towards integrating IoT and digital twins in order to intensify real-time monitoring of the cold chain environmental conditions, and the eventual optimization of the postharvest supply chains. This study gives promising insight towards the use of advanced technologies in reducing losses in the postharvest supply chain of fruits and vegetables

Applying blockchain technology to improve agri-food traceability: A review of development methods, benefits and challenges

Traceability plays a vital role in food quality and safety management. Traditional Internet of Things (IoT) traceability systems provide the feasible solutions for the quality monitoring and traceability of food supply chains. However, most of the IoT solutions rely on the centralized server-client paradigm that makes it difficult for consumers to acquire all transaction information and to track the origins of products. Blockchain is a cutting-edge technology that has great potential for improving traceability performance by providing security and full transparency. However, the benefits, challenges and development methods of blockchain-based food traceability systems are not yet fully explored in the current literature. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to review the blockchain technology characteristics and functionalities, identify blockchain-based solutions for addressing food traceability concerns, highlight the benefits and challenges of blockchain-based traceability systems implementation, and help researchers and practitioners to apply blockchain technology based food traceability systems by proposing an architecture design framework and suitability application analysis flowchart of blockchain based food traceability systems. The results of this study contribute to better understanding and knowledge on how to improve the food traceability by developing and implementing blockchain-based traceability systems. The paper provides valuable information for researchers and practitioners on the use of blockchain-based food traceability management and has a positive effect on the improvement of food sustainability

Shaping the future of cold chain 4.0 through the lenses of digital transition and sustainability

The digitisation of supply chain management lies at the crux of modern industry and similar trends are noticeable in the cold chain (CC) under the cold chain 4.0 (CC 4.0) concept. However, the extant research lacks a systematic summary of existing findings on CC 4.0. Therefore, this study provides a bibliometric and network analysis of 618 high-quality CC 4.0 publications extracted from the Web of Science (WoS). The study uses performance assessment and science mapping to investigate the impact of digital and sustainable technologies in the CC domain. Four main research streams and 19 research propositions are identified to provide an informative overview of the most recent developments in the emerging and growing domain of CC 4.0 and the interface between information systems and operations management. The study further identifies the critical role and impacts of digital-sustainable transformation and presents an agenda for future research focusing on critical theoretical and managerial areas that remain understudied

Implementation of relevant fourth industrial revolution innovations across the supply chain of fruits and vegetables: a short update on Traceability 4.0

Food Traceability 4.0 refers to the application of fourth industrial revolution (or Industry 4.0) technologies to ensure food authenticity, safety, and high food quality. Growing interest in food traceability has led to the development of a wide range of chemical, biomolecular, isotopic, chromatographic, and spectroscopic methods with varied performance and success rates. This review will give an update on the application of Traceability 4.0 in the fruits and vegetables sector, focusing on relevant Industry 4.0 enablers, especially Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and Big Data. The results show that the Traceability 4.0 has significant potential to improve quality and safety of many fruits and vegetables, enhance transparency, reduce the costs of food recalls, and decrease waste and loss. However, due to their high implementation costs and lack of adaptability to industrial environments, most of these advanced technologies have not yet gone beyond the laboratory scale. Therefore, further research is anticipated to overcome current limitations for large-scale applications

Emerging issues and challenges in agri-food supply chain

Globalization and free trade policies coupled with consumers’ demand for safe and high quality foods have created pressure on various stakeholders (key players) attached within the agri-food supply chain. Influence, contributions and the role of socio-economic and environmental factors are huge to achieve a successful flow of supply chain. Globally, various techniques and conceptual models have been proposed to render agri-food supply chain to be effective and profitable. However, still there are several gaps and emerging challenges in the supply chain to achieve a fruitful sustainable food production. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to identify and highlight the present world scenario and challenges encountered along agri-food supply chain and future prospects.This chapter theme article is based on our ongoing project- VALORTECH, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 810630

DIGITISING AGRIFOOD Pathways and Challenges. November 2019

As climate change increasingly poses an existential risk for the Earth, scientists and policymakers turn to agriculture and food as areas for urgent and bold action, which need to return within acceptable Planet Boundaries. The links between agriculture, biodiversity and climate change have become so evident that scientists propose a Great Food Transformation towards a healthy diet by 2050 as a major way to save the planet. Achieving these milestones, however, is not easy, both based on current indicators and on the gloomy state of global dialogue in this domain. This is why digital technologies such as wireless connectivity, the Internet of Things, Arti cial Intelligence and blockchain can and should come to the rescue. This report looks at the many ways in which digital solutions can be implemented on the ground to help the agrifood chain transform itself to achieve more sustainability. Together with the solution, we identify obstacles, challenges, gaps and possible policy recommendations. Action items are addressed at the European Union both as an actor of change at home, and in global governance, and are spread across ten areas, from boosting connectivity and data governance to actions aimed at empowering small farmers and end users

Assessing the potential of blockchain technology as an information-sharing platform in the major fruit export supply chains of South Africa

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