ABSTRACT
Food production chains have to adapt and respond to global markets and dynamic customer demands. There is ongoing pressure to differentiate by moving from a supply- to a demand-driven business model. The inherent difficulties in the lifecycle management of food products, their perishable nature, the volatility in global and regional supplier and customer markets, and the mix of objective and subjective drivers of customer demand and satisfaction, compose a challenging food production landscape. Businesses will have to navigate through ever changing operational risks and ensure resilience, agility, as well as transparency and product assurance. Resilience becomes important especially as per recent experience and analyses prompted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. While the industrial transition to digitalized and automated food production chains is seen as a response to such challenges, the contribution of Industry 4.0 technology enablers toward this aim is not sufficiently well understood. This work outlines the key features of high performing food production chains and performs a mapping between them and enabling technologies. As digitalization initiatives gain priority, such mapping can help with the prioritization of technology enablers on delivering key aspects of high performing food production chains.
ABSTRACT
In recent years, modelling techniques have become more frequently adopted in the field of food processing, especially for cereal-based products, which are among the most consumed foods in the world. Predictive models and simulations make it possible to explore new approaches and optimize proceedings, potentially helping companies reduce costs and limit carbon emissions. Nevertheless, as the different phases of the food processing chain are highly specialized, advances in modelling are often unknown outside of a single domain, and models rarely take into account more than one step. This paper introduces the first high-level overview of modelling techniques employed in different parts of the cereal supply chain, from farming to storage, from drying to milling, from processing to consumption. This review, issued from a networking project including researchers from over 30 different countries, aims at presenting the current state of the art in each domain, showing common trends and synergies, to finally suggest promising future venues for research.
ABSTRACT
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