Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
environmental control when needed, devices for material handling, and shipping docks.
Environmental control provides food products with the adequate temperature conditions (e.g.,
frozen, refrigerated, room temperature) for their optimal storage. Besides being intermediate
storage, distribution centers operate as “order processing” facilities responsible for the fulfill-
ment of orders that come from retailers and wholesalers.
Food retailers interface with consumers and are the last link in the food production and
distribution chain. Food retailers include super centers, grocery stores, convenience stores,
catalog order companies, and online companies. Restaurants take the place of retailers in the
specialized foodservice supply chain.
Customers are the ultimate users of the products provided by the supply chain; and
therefore, they are the ones who dictate the products offered by the retailers that ultimately
impact the whole chain in an “opposite direction” than the flow of materials (see Fig. 3.1).
Once the product is in the customer's hands, the supply chain players are not yet “off the
hook” so to speak. Most companies provide after-sale service with the purpose of helping
customers with any concerns during the consumption phase. This may include, but is not lim-
ited to, satisfying money-back guarantee pledges, helping with products use, dealing with
unsatisfied customers, providing recipes, fulfilling guarantees, and so on. Also, after-sale ser-
vice can be used as a tool to get feedback from the customers to improve the product and scout
for ideas for new products.
The perishability factor and the need for special handling make the food supply chain
more particular than supply chains of nonfood products. Safety concerns have created the
need for additional protection in the supply chain, including product traceability and tamper
resistance.
Product traceability can be valuable in any supply chain, however in food products, an
effective traceability system is imperative in the event of a recall or to fulfill label-of-origination
requirements mandated by some countries. Tamper resistance makes food products less
susceptible to potential alteration along the supply chain by delinquent individuals. This is
accomplished by making tampering harder or by using tamper-evident devices that makes the
transgression obvious.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN
Impact of production of raw materials
Agriculture
The world food production increased 1.97-fold from 1961 to 1996. The almost doubling in
thirty-five years was a direct consequence of the increased use of nitrogen fertilizer by 6.87-
fold, phosphorus fertilizer by 3.48-fold, irrigation water by-1.68 fold, and of course, the
expansion of agricultural land by 1.1-fold (Tilman, 1999).
Expansion of agricultural land is one of the most visible consequences of agriculture. It
takes place at expenses of the lost of terrestrial ecosystems that are capable of providing
humans with ecological services. Above and beyond the permanent loss of the beauty of
natural forests and marshlands, loss of healthy ecological systems deprive humans from
essential services, including air and water purification, freshwater supply, waste
decomposition, crops pollination, soil generation, nutrients cycling, genetic diversity, and
greenhouse gases mitigation. Furthermore, direct consequences of deforestation are the
release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as well the loss of forests' future capability of
carbon trapping.
