Digital and cyber physical twins framework for food and packaging supply chain waste control and optimization

Food supply chains (FSCs) enable safe, effective, and sustainable food distribution, linking farm to table. They involve multiple sources and destinations, a broad set of actors and handling modes, variable and unpredictable environmental conditions, potentially decaying food and packaging, affecting quality and consumer satisfaction (Accorsi et al., J Food Eng 2022). FSCs are responsible for over 25% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions. Consumer preferences and government regulations are increasingly pressuring businesses to reduce their environmental footprints. Circular food packaging networks represent one possibility to do so. While the benefit of reducing the use of virgin plastic polymers is well-known, several barriers limit the adoption of reusable container systems (Accorsi et al., Sus Pro Con 2022). New methodologies, design-support approaches, and ready-to-practice solutions to improve the food and the packaging quality and properties throughout the supply chain to the final consumer are expected. Recent explorative works are conducted on primary and secondary food packages by adopting digital twin solutions and technologies (Manzini and Accorsi, J Food Eng 2013). Literature demonstrates the effectiveness of reusable and recyclable food packaging containers networks in fruit & vegetables retailing distributions (Accorsi et al., J Cle Pro 2022), but evidence of such benefits must be investigated further in food catering supply chain (FCSC) systems (Accorsi et al., Sus Pro Con 2020; Ronzoni et al., IFAC 2022) characterized by more complex networks and actors involved.

This project aims at developing novel a cyber-physical and digital twins framework for the design, management, and control of food and packaging waste throughout the Food Catering Supply Chain (FCSC) system. An integrated novel multidisciplinary and multi-objective design-support methodology will be developed, engineered, and validated using this framework. A list of main tasks follows:

1) introduction of a waste-based management knowledge inventory system made of primary & secondary data;
2) development of a multi-disciplinary dashboard of safety and sustainability indicators;
3) selection of a significant case study from FCSC;
4) development of multi-objective supporting decisions models and methods to support decision making on food and package supply chains;
5) development of a digital twin platform that includes Decision Support Systems (DSS) and demonstrators for the simulation of product & package life cycle within the FCSC;
6) testing and validation of cyber-physical twin for the control of shelf life and properties of packaged food products;
7) comparative multi-scenarios analyses involving different packaging solutions and networks (including Reusable Plastic Containers - RPC) built upon real-world case studies;
8) best practice, guidelines and general results for research dissemination and technological transfer to industry. 

1) A novel repository system for primary and secondary multi-disciplinary data in food catering supply chain systems (in connection with spoke 4).

2) Innovative digital-twin (DT) platform for the prediction of the effects of physical and environmental stresses on food product and package. This DT is made of a dashboard of KPIs, a database for the repository of data, mathematical models, solving algorithms and methods, and integrated with a cyber-physical demonstrator for the simulation of stresses, supporting decision and expert systems (DSS) (in connection with spoke 3).

3) Evaluation of alternative primary, secondary and tertiary packaging systems and associated material-driven networks using a spatial Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach augmented with a supply chain digital twin.

4) Comparative and competitive spatial LCA for reusable and recyclable food packaging containers networks in food catering supply chain (FCSC) system (in connection with spoke 1).