Enhancing food supply chain in green logistics with multi-level processing strategy under disruptions

Food supply chains (FSCs) have long been exposed to environmental variability and shock events caused by various economic, political, and infrastructural factors. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed and identified the vulnerability of FSCs, and promoted integrated optimization approaches for building resilience. However, existing works focusing on general supply chains (SCs) and FSCs have not been fully aware of the distinct characteristics of FSCs in green logistics, i.e., the expiration of fresh products. In reality, perishable food materials can be processed into products of different processing levels (i.e., multi-level processing) for longer shelf lives, which can serve as a timely and economic strategy to increase safety stocks for mitigating disruption risks. Motivated by this fact, we study the problem of enhancing FSC with a multi-level processing strategy. An integrated location, inventory, and distribution planning model for a multi-echelon FSC under COVID-19-related disruptions is formulated to maximize the total profit over a finite planning horizon. Specifically, a two-stage stochastic programming model is presented to hedge against disruption risks, where scenarios are generated to characterize geographical impact induced by source-region disruptions. For small-scale problems, the model can be solved with commercial solvers. To exactly and efficiently solve the large-scale instances, we design an integer L-shaped method. Numerical experiments are conducted on a case study and randomly generated instances to show the efficiency of our model and solution method. Based on the case study, managerial insights are drawn.

Food purchasing, food hygiene, and nutritional behaviors of consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic

An online questionnaire, consisting of 24 questions was applied to determine individuals' food purchasing, food hygiene, and nutritional behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of 658 re-spondents, 67% were female, 33% were male, 60% were 18-24 years old, and 25% were 25-31 years old. Supermarket shopping (73.9%) was the most preferred way to supply food, while the primary stocked up food was dried legumes (59.1%). The nutritional values and contents of foods were more paid attention to than before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the packaged foods (79.3%) were primarily preferred. The most preferred methods for cleaning fresh fruits and vegetables were washing under running water (59.7%) and soaking in water with vinegar (43.2%). The participants intended to eat healthy foods during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the daily meal counts increased slightly. Food supplements, mainly vitamin C (73%) and vitamin D (40.5%) were consumed to strengthen the immune system. Additionally, social media (31.9%) and TV programs (20.3%) were very effective after medical doctor recommendations (32%) for orienting the nutritional behaviors of participants.

Designing a resilient retail supply network for fresh products under disruption risks.

The retail sector supplies the daily fresh products and increasingly plays a key role in the stability and livability of cities. However, public health events such as COVID-19 have caused frequent product shortages in recent years. The risk of fresh product shortages not only causes retailers to lose profits, but also affects the normal life of residents. In this paper, we address the problem of designing a resilient retail supply network for fresh products under the supply disruption risks and propose a bi-objective mixed-integer programming model. This model can help retailers to select suppliers, distribution centers and transportation routes under different scenarios and implement three resilience strategies, namely, priority supply, multiple sourcing and lateral transshipment. We use the ε -constraint method to transform the multi-objective problem into a single objective model and develop a Lagrangian relaxation algorithm to solve the different scale instances. This model is solved for a real-life case of a supermarket to obtain managerial insights. In the case study, this paper shows the set of Pareto fronts with different inventory periods, maximum allowed decay and decay rate. We calculate the expected total cost under targeted disruption scenarios and evaluate the effectiveness of these resilience strategies when implemented concurrently or separately. Our results identify the most critical suppliers and distribution centers that should be fortified. We elaborate that more resilience strategies are not always better and managers need to take appropriate resilience strategies according to their own problems.

Potential sanitizers and disinfectants for fresh fruits and vegetables: a comprehensive review. (Special Issue: Novel disinfectant technologies for food preservation.)

Fresh fruits and vegetables carry a heavy load of microorganisms which may cause the risks of food-borne illness to the consumer. Even after washing with water, there is a need for sanitization and disinfection to drop down a load of harmful microbes under the safe limit. Sanitizers and disinfectants are not only cost-effective but also nonhazardous and eco-friendly. Moreover, they should not hamper the organoleptic and nutritional properties of fresh produce. With rising demand for safe, nutritious, and fresh fruits and vegetables, many new disinfectants and treatments are commercially available. During this COVID-19 outbreak, knowledge of sanitizers and disinfectants for fresh fruits and vegetables is very important. This review focuses on working principles, applications, and related legislation of physical and chemical disinfection technologies (chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone, organic acids, electrolyzed water, irradiation, ultrasound etc.) and their effectiveness for shelf-life extension of fresh produce.

Research by surveying the influence of coronavirus on fruit consumption

Fruit consumption has experienced a huge increase over the past decade as the results of numerous studies indicate a positive effect of fruit ingredients on human health. The spread of the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 disease is having an unprecedented effect on all food markets, including the fruit and vegetable market. The aim of the study was to determine whether the COVID-19 virus pandemic has an impact on fruit consumption. The survey was conducted via a Google form within which a survey was conducted which was then posted on the social network Facebook. A total of 463 responses were received. When asked whether they believe that fruit consumption affects the state of the immune system, 97.2% of respondents answered in the affirmative, which speaks volumes about sufficient education and the importance of fruit consumption. According to a survey, 85.1% of respondents believe that the situation caused by the COVID-19 virus did not make it difficult to obtain fresh fruit. 86.4% of respondents believe that their eating habits related to fruit consumption during the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus have not changed.

Traceability architecture technology for short commercial exchange

The intense governmental effort to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), allowed project development accomplishment within this framework and, hand in hand with globalization, has connected Colombian territories with large cities by technological interfaces. The population and territorial view of the SDG has promoted trends that bring near consumers and territories of goods producers or consumer services;one of these trends are short commercial systems (SCS). This research has proved that Colombian SCS aid commercial exchange equity, promote sustainable and conscious consumption, produce new social and commercial links, contribute to reducing packaging use and solid waste production, product freshness, traditions and knowledge exchange, supply chain actors autonomy and integration of actors involved;this was also potentialized by the Covid-19 sanitary crisis. Evidence showed that SCS is performed by families or farming associations that lack technics to certify quality process and that effectively apply continuous improvement process, making uncompetitive operations faced to other commercial models;however, traceability as a quality strategy for perishable products has shown to adapt, allowing continuous quality improvement according to the supply chain actor requirements and the appropriate architecture that allows to model according to the requirements of each of the participant actors. The need to build a technological architecture that allows establishing the best commercialization and distribution model for each actor involved in the supply chain, ensuring guidelines for development and success of this technological answer is concluded from the four phases of this research. The architecture involved in this research allows adaptability in different rural families in the same economical sector, potentializing competitiveness, and clear information flow, minimizing risks, time, and allowing decision making facing possible risks. © IEOM Society Inweternational.