Wissensstandsanalyse zu Qualität, Verbraucherschutz und Verarbeitung ökologischer Lebensmittel

Zielsetzung des Projektes war es, den aktuellen Stand des Wissens zur Qualität und Verarbeitung ökologischer Lebensmittel sowie zum Verbraucherschutz aufzuzeigen und zu bewerten. Das Projektteam setzte sich aus Wissenschaftlern des Forschungsinstituts für biologischen Landbau (Deutschland und Schweiz), des Büros für Lebensmittelkunde, des Forschungsrings für Biologisch-Dynamische Wirtschaftsweise e.V. sowie des Fachgebiets Ökologische Lebensmittelqualität und Ernährungskultur der Universität Kassel zusammen. In dem zeitlich sehr begrenzten Projekt fokussierte die Arbeitsgruppe die Betrachtung auf folgende Themenkomplexe und Produktgruppen: Bereich Qualität - Ernährung - Sensorik - Ökospezifische Qualitäten - Authentizität und Rückverfolgbarkeit Bereich Verarbeitung - Rohwaren/Lagerung und Technologien für die Produktgruppen: -- Getreide -- Milch -- Fleisch -- Obst und Gemüse und Erzeugnisse aus diesen - Nachhaltigkeit im Unternehmen und entlang der Prozesskette - Verpackung Vorhandenes Wissen, aktuelle Fragestellungen und Entwicklungsrichtungen wurden nach thematisch angepassten Vorgehensweisen identifiziert und anhand internationaler Literatur und Experteninterviews diskutiert. Zu allen Themenkomplexen wurden kurze und allgemeinverständliche Reports erstellt, die einen schnellen und fundierten Überblick zum aktuellen Stand des Wissens und zu eventuellen Wissenslücken geben. Der Abschlussreport wurde in deutscher und englischer Sprache veröffentlicht. Insgesamt wurde festgestellt, dass in den betrachteten Themenkomplexen erheblicher Bedarf an Forschung und Entwicklung sowie an Wissenstransfer besteht. Neben einer Reihe von Detailfragen sind grundlegende Themen, wie beispielsweise das Anforderungsprofil an eine „ökologische Verarbeitung“, nicht hinreichend erforscht und geklärt. Diese Arbeiten sind jedoch Voraussetzung für die Bearbeitung von Detailthemen, da hier Aufgabenstellungen, Schwerpunktsetzungen und Methoden definiert werden

How logistics contribute to the complexity of global agri-food supply chains and thus to potential food safety risks

Die Globalisierung des Agrarhandels führt zu komplexen Lieferketten, was weitreichende Folgen für die Lebensmittelsicherheit haben kann. Entsprechende internationale Vorkommnisse stellen die zuständigen Behörden vor die Herausforderung, Risiken sachgemäß zu managen und zu bewerten. Bei der Analyse von aufgetretenen Problemfällen wurden erhebliche Wissenslücken hinsichtlich der Rolle der Logistik aufgedeckt. Um das Forschungsgebiet der globalen Warenströme abzubilden, wurde anhand einer qualitativen Textanalyse multidisziplinärer Literatur - angelehnt an den Grounded Theory-Ansatz - ein konzeptioneller Bezugsrahmen am Beispiel von Agrarrohstoffen entwickelt. Dieser diente als Grundlage für eine Fallstudie zur empirischen Untersuchung der potentiellen Kontamination von Agrarrohstoffen mit Mykotoxinen. Hierzu wurden Experteninterviews mit 24 Akteuren aus den Bereichen Logistik, Handel, Beschaffung und Richtlinien und Standards durchgeführt. Wir haben verschiedene Ebenen der wichtigsten Konzepte innerhalb (z.B. Logistikprozesse und Hauptakteure) und außerhalb (z.B. Globale Driver) der Warenströme von Agrarrohstoffen bestimmt. Mit Hilfe der Fallstudie konnten wir zudem kritische Dimensionen (z.B. Maßnahmen zur Lebensmittelsicherheit, menschlicher Faktor, Hafenmerkmale) und entsprechende kritische Faktoren für die Lebensmittelsicherheit und ihre Wechselbeziehungen identifizieren. Die Studie zeigt die Notwendigkeit integrativer und nachhaltiger Lösungen, wie die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Wirtschaftsakteuren, als auch mit Behörden, sowie politische Anreize, um z.B. mehr Transparenz und Sorgfalt im Qualitätsmanagement als auch Investitionen in neue Technologien (z. B. Blockchain) im Logistiksektor zu erreichen. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse sollten in bestehende und neue Instrumente, die zur Klärung internationaler Lebensmittelsicherheitsvorfälle oder in der Risikofrüherkennung eingesetzt werden und entsprechend der Dynamik des Sektors auf EU- und internationaler Ebene ständig aktualisiert und erweitert werden.The globalization of agricultural trade leads to complex supply chains, which can have far-reaching consequences for food safety. International food safety incidents are challenging competent authorities to assess and manage food safety risks appropriately. Analysis of respective occurrences revealed substantial knowledge gaps regarding the role of logistics. To map the research area of global commodity flows, a conceptual framework - using agricultural commodities as an example - was developed based on qualitative text analysis of multidisciplinary literature, inspired by the Grounded Theory approach. This served as the foundation for a case study to empirically investigate the potential contamination of agricultural commodities with mycotoxins. For such purpose, expert interviews were conducted with 24 stakeholders from logistics, trade, procurement, and regulations and standards. We identified different levels of key concepts within (e.g., logistics processes and key actors) and outside (e.g., global drivers) the commodity flows of agricultural commodities. The case study further allowed us to identify critical dimensions (e.g., food safety measures, human factor, port characteristics) and corresponding critical factors for food safety and their interrelationships. The study demonstrates the need for integrative and sustainable solutions, such as collaboration between economic actors, as well as with authorities, policy incentives, for example to achieve more transparency and diligence in quality management, as well as more investments in new technologies (e.g. blockchain) in the logistics sector. The knowledge gained calls to be integrated into existing and new tools used to verify and assess international food safety incidents or in early risk detection, and should constantly be updated and expanded according to the unfolding dynamics of the sector at EU and international levels

Supporting requirement analysis through requirement rationale capture and traceability

Manufacturers of complex engineering systems are increasingly recognising the importance of identifying, understanding and satisfying stakeholders’ needs in order to produce high-quality products. The analysis of these needs into a formal requirement specification is a time consuming and complex process for which little support is offered to design engineers. This can result in requirements being poorly documented and with little or no traceability to their origins. This dissertation reports an investigation to understand the process of requirement analysis and develop computational support for this important phase of the engineering design process. The key argument of this research is that the existing practice of requirement analysis can be improved by providing better support for requirement rationale capture and enabling greater requirement traceability. The research consisted of three main phases. In the first phase, literature related to the requirement analysis was reviewed and led to the creation of a requirement analysis model. In the second phase, the practices of a global engineering organisation were investigated using document analysis as well as interviews with and shadowing of company engineers. The research found that requirement analysis lacks support for requirement rationale capture and traceability. On the basis of this result, a workflow for requirement analysis was proposed. The workflow involves the use of the Decision Rationale editor tool to capture requirement rationale and enable requirement traceability. In the third phase, four studies were undertaken to validate the workflow. These studies investigated: 1) application of the workflow to requirements generated through reverse-engineering a low-complexity consumer product; 2) requirements extracted from documents produced by a graduate engineering team during a twelve-week project; 3) the requirement analysis process undertaken by two graduate engineering teams during twelve-week projects; and 4) requirements for a new aircraft engine development programme. The studies showed that the proposed workflow is feasible, practical, and scalable when applied to engineering projects. Requirement rationales were classified into categories, namely product design and use, pre-existing rationale, and project management. In order to fully support requirement traceability, it was found that it is important to make traceable four types of requirement transformations: newly introduced, copied, updated, and deleted requirements. The research demonstrated that the proposed workflow is a successful proof-of-concept and can lead to improved quality of requirement documentation and requirement traceability.Open Acces

Identity preservation & traceability: the state of the art - from a grain perspective (status of agricultural quality systems / traceability / certification systems)

A descriptive paper on the state of identity preservation and traceability (IPT) as it relates domestically and internationally to food safety and economics. While not exhaustive, it is illustrative of trends. Identity preservation and traceability (IPT) are not new concepts; however, the growth of public and business interest and concerns regarding them has grown tremendously during the past decade due to many events, which has resulted in these concepts joining together within a single concept (with the same title). This paper, while attempting to be thorough, will highlight the major systems of IPT from a US business perspective. Before and during the research of this study many companies and organizations have been created, bought out, or simply gone out of business. Government and non-government organizations have changed regulations and how they have adapted to current world events. Thus the state of IPT will be a sampling of the major players that are in existence during the research. Several of the examples of IPT programs will be of situations that affect the US grain industry, however, other examples will be provided.;Scope of this work; to provide an introduction to, and summary of, identity preservation and traceability (IPT) systems and programs presently available, develop a conceptual model of IPT at the farmer level, and interpretation of the overall art.;The purpose of this research is to provide a sampling of government, industry, and company approaches towards identity preservation and traceability (IPT) systems from the 1990s to early 2007. From this the audience should gain a better understanding of the complexity of IPT systems, rules that it functions under, how IPT is shaped and modified; primary, support, and ancillary components, and the diverse reasons why IPT is critical for food safety and the market.;The format of this work starts with IPT history followed by the theory, design, and general components of IPT, examples of IPT programs and standards, examples of auditing and laboratory firms, chapters that discuss domestic/foreign policy and advisory groups, software providers, process facilitators, food recalls/insurance, cost-benefit spreadsheet that focuses on farm level IP for comparison, farmer IP questionnaire, interpretation, conclusion, and appendixes, related products guide, glossary, directory of resources, and works cited

Decentralised Additive Manufacturing for Architecture:Exploring the integration of distributed ledger technologies with 3D printing

This paper investigates the potential integration of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies with Additive Manufacturing in the context of architectural design and fabrication. The study aims to identify knowledge gaps, explore the affinity between these technologies, and challenge the current architecture production paradigm. Through a comprehensive state-of-the-art review and analysis of academic papers and industrial case studies, we identified emerging themes and gaps in the literature. We also examined the misalignment of incentives among key participants of the proposed systems. Our findings highlighted the relevance of blockchain technology in additive manufacturing, but also revealed significant challenges and misalignments in incentives among stakeholders. We argue that further research and experimentation are necessary to fully understand the technical feasibility and impact of integrating these technologies in architectural design and fabrication

Decentralised additive manufacturing for architecture: exploring the integration of distributed ledger technologies with 3D printing.

This paper investigates the potential integration of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies with Additive Manufacturing in the context of architectural design and fabrication. The study aims to identify knowledge gaps, explore the affinity between these technologies, and challenge the current architecture production paradigm. Through a comprehensive state-of-the-art review and analysis of academic papers and industrial case studies, we identified emerging themes and gaps in the literature. We also examined the misalignment of incentives among key participants of the proposed systems. Our findings highlighted the relevance of blockchain technology in additive manufacturing, but also revealed significant challenges and misalignments in incentives among stakeholders. We argue that further research and experimentation are necessary to fully understand the technical feasibility and impact of integrating these technologies in architectural design and fabrication

Understanding the perceptions of traceability systems in the cocoa supply chain :a case of Ghana

DBA ThesisMarkets for agricultural commodities are characterised by high volumes of homogeneous goods, low unit value and high information asymmetries. As a result, transparency systems, such as traceability, are increasingly required in the international food commodity trade as producers and traders make efforts to differentiate their goods on the basis of quality. In its simplest terms, traceability refers to the ability to trace and track the sources of food and food inputs in supply chains. Researchers and supply chain participants, specifically in the cocoa sector of Ghana, have different perceptions of traceability systems. To explore this issue, a qualitative multiple case study research design was used to understand actors’ perception of traceability systems in Ghana’s cocoa supply chain. Behavioural theories, technology and innovation diffusion theories, and decision-making theories were used as the theoretical frameworks to examine the differences in perception of traceability systems in the Ghana cocoa supply chain. A semi-structured interview guide was used to study 14 cases of farmers, middlemen, cocoa processors and regulators in the cocoa sector of Ghana. The research found differences in the perception of traceability systems among the different segments of the supply chain with respect to meanings of the term ‘traceability’, its perceived usefulness, actors’ intention to adopt systems and motivations to implement traceability systems. The study found that the extra income in the form of traceability premiums, and the relationships that result from implementing traceability systems, are the two most important motivation factors. Based on these results, the study has contributed to agribusiness policy and literature