Search

Time and temperature are the crucial factors affecting the quality of perishable products. The device capable of recording temperature fluctuation and maintaining time has huge practical potential. In this research, a novel thermal history indicator (THI) was proposed based on covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with the irreversible color change performance. The color change and absorbance of the THI were investigated over a broad monitoring temperature range (− 22 ~ 55 ℃) and were closely correlated with its thermal accumulation over time and temperature. The activation energy (Ea) of the THI was calculated to be 55.31 kJ mol−1, which can be used to monitor the perishable products with deterioration reaction Ea ranging from 30.31 to 80.31 kJ mol−1. In addition, the THI also demonstrated the significant response to the environmental temperature fluctuations. Furthermore, the potential applications were evaluated by recording the changes of the THI gel and the total viable count (TVC) of food under the same conditions. The results indicated that the digital images of the colorimetric THI gel were correlated with TVC of food at 4 ℃ and 25 ℃, respectively. These results support that the proposed THI is potential for real-time, accurate, non-destructive, visually, and quantitatively monitoring food freshness during food supply chain distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perishability can be defined as the characteristic of fresh items. The level of freshness is one of the most crucial indicators in the fresh food supply chain. The widespread information asymmetry has exacerbated the circulation losses to trigger the food safety incidents, such as the horse meat scandal in the UK, the widespread Romaine lettuce infection in the US, the contamination of Ecuadorian white shrimp, the counterfeiting of pork in China, and the þSalmon Incidentÿ. Food safety issues have resulted in adverse customer sentiment on the trust between consumers and the fresh produce business. Hence, risk- averse actions can be expected to implemented on the highly efficient and reliable traceability system for agricultural goods. The quality and safety traceability were enhanced to guarantee food safety throughout the whole supply chain of agricultural products. Fresh produce retailers can achieved in the transparency about freshness using traceability system. The fresh produce supply chain can be realized to decrease the food wastes for the high product quality and customer trust. Nascent Blockchain technology can offer to strengthening the stability of system, with the decentralization, openness, transparency, cryptographic protection and tamper-proof features. Information disclosure can also be utilized to ensure both openness and transparency of information. Additionally, the utilization and impact of information can be used to mitigate information asymmetry among supply chain participants in the product traceability. Furthermore, blockchain technology can be implemented in the entire supply chain of fresh food, particularly on data collection and storage. Real-time monitoring was realized to predict the product status during the production, processing, transportation and sales of products. As a result, the clear insight of consumers can be gained into the authentic information regarding all stages of production and distribution, thus ensuring transparency in product freshness. Supply chain efficiency was also optimized to foster the consumer trust and retailer reputation. Furthermore, customer confidence was enhanced the reputation of stores and precise supply matching. A robust and safe trust mechanism was effectively achieved for the fresh food supply chain. Blockchain technology can be implemented in the fresh produce retail industry, in order to balance and promote information sharing and transparency. Moreover, smart contract technology was utilized to reduce the circulating time of fresh produce and consumer risks, in order to enhance the efficiency and quality of consumer benefits. However, the technological application can also depend on the freshness of items and the degree to which consumers minimize risk. In this study, the information transparency and timeliness were enhanced to focus on the blockchain technology. A secondary fresh food supply chain was established to involve the suppliers, retailers, and consumers. The equilibrium solutions of the game between suppliers and retailers were compared both before and after the implementation of blockchain technology. The consumers risk avoidance behaviors were also examined on the application strategy and value. A systematic investigation was then made to determine the intention of retailers to adopt blockchain technology. Research indicated that high intention was achieved to use blockchain technology, when the product was a higher initial freshness. This selected was driven by the requirement to maximize revenues, consumer surplus and more social welfare. Conversely, blockchain technology was resulted in the decreased profits and motivation, if the product was a low initial freshness. In contrast, there was the increase in the retailer's willingness to apply the blockchain technology, as the level of consumer risk aversion increased, particularly when the initial freshness of the product was at an average level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many production systems need to be able to change the rate at which they manufacture products for various reasons, hence, the need to find the optimal lot size under these multiple levels of production. This research addresses the need for optimizing inventory in a system with a shifting production rate and other challenging product characteristics such as product deterioration with limited life span, and product demand that is dependent on the stock level, the state of freshness of the product, and the selling price. The product also needs to be discounted as it gets close to the expiry date in order to boost demand and prevent wastage beyond its life span. Our objective is to maximize profit by determining the optimal selling price and inventory cycle time by deriving the relevant equations for these decision variables. The Newton-Raphson method was used to numerically solve for the optimal values of these variables. Sensitivity analyses were performed to derive useful insights for managerial decision-making.

Many production systems need to be able to change the rate at which they manufacture products for various reasons, hence, the need to find the optimal lot size under these multiple levels of production. This research addresses the need for optimizing inventory in a system with a shifting production rate and other challenging product characteristics such as product deterioration with limited life span, and product demand that is dependent on the stock level, the state of freshness of the product, and the selling price. The product also needs to be discounted as it gets close to the expiry date in order to boost demand and prevent wastage beyond its life span. Our objective is to maximize profit by determining the optimal selling price and inventory cycle time by deriving the relevant equations for these decision variables. The Newton-Raphson method was used to numerically solve for the optimal values of these variables. Sensitivity analyses were performed to derive useful insights for managerial decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years has raised serious concerns about the distribution of fast-moving consumer goods products, given the freshness of their use. On the one hand, the distribution of fast-moving consumer goods with multiple vehicles has led to maintaining the freshness of items at the supply chain level, and on the other hand, it involves the high costs of using vehicles. Congestion of vehicles and drivers in the distribution of items has also increased the possibility of COVID-19 transmission. The importance of the above issue has led to the modeling of a multi-level supply chain problem in the FMCG industry by considering the freshness of items to reduce COVID-19 transmission. The most important issue considered in this article is to send fresh food in the shortest possible time to customers who cannot go to stores and wait in line to buy items in the conditions of Covid-19. Therefore, the designed model provides the possibility for customers to receive fresh food in addition to reducing costs and also reduce the possibility of contracting Covid-19. Designed supply chain network levels include suppliers of raw materials, manufacturers of consumer goods, distributors and end customers. In order to optimize the objectives of the problem, including minimizing the total costs of supply chain network design and maximizing the freshness of items, various strategic and tactical decisions such as locating potential facilities, routing vehicles, and optimally allocating the flow of goods should be made. Since the supply chain network model is considered to be NP-hard, meta-heuristic algorithms have been used to solve the problem by providing a modified priority-based encoding. The results show the high efficiency of the proposed solution method in a short time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the value of information (VOI) in the context of a retailer that provides a perishable product to consumers and receives replenishment from a single supplier. We assume a periodic review model with stochastic demand, lost sales, and order quantity restrictions. The product lifetime is fixed and deterministic once received by the retailer, although the age of replenished items provided by the supplier varies stochastically over time. Since the product is perishable, any unsold inventory remaining after the lifetime elapses must be discarded (outdated). Without the supplier explicitly informing the retailer of the product age, the age remains unknown until receipt. With information sharing, the retailer is informed of the product age prior to placing an order and hence, can utilize this information in its decision-making. We formulate the retailer's replenishment policies, with and without knowing the age of the product upon receipt, and measure the VOI as the marginal improvement in profit that the retailer achieves with information sharing, relative to the case when no information is shared. We establish the importance of information sharing and identify the conditions under which substantial benefits can be realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]