Qualitative methodology for efficient food chain design

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology to efficiently design food supply chains. The goals of quality, cost and environmental load are looked at independently of each other. Food chains are made up of links and are designed to deliver a particular product with consumer-specified attributes. These attributes are used to select the goals (quality, cost and environment load) to optimise the chain. The methodology presents a systematic way to identify problem areas in supply chains. The entire chain from primary production up to and including consumer processing influences the final product; but the relative contribution of the links varies according to the goal for which the chain is being designed and optimised. Case studies on a novel protein food made from pea protein are presented to showcase the methodology