New solutions for sustainable logistics in food supply chains

The topic of environmental sustainability is gaining increasing attention in the food industry. In this regard, logistics is a key activity to successfully establish green supply chain strategies. The downstream distribution of food products plays a significant role in the environmental performance of food supply chains. Although several initiatives have been launched, there is still much to be done, and further research on the topic is needed to identify and share good practices. Moreover, since sustainability is an objective, proper key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics should be defined to assess the impacts.   

When talking about sustainability in the food industry, it’s important not to refer to “just” environmental issues. Customers have higher and higher expectations in terms of both environmental sustainability and food safety. Food safety is a must in the industry, and logistics should play a role even here.  

The task is intended to identify and classify the main green logistics strategies, practices, and actions that food companies can implement with reference to key aspects such as network design, transport, warehousing, and logistics innovation (4.0 Paradigm). In this regard, multiple sources will be used to collect data: investigation of scientific literature, secondary sources (as an example, companies’ websites, industry reports), and case studies with food companies and logistics operators. Once collected the information, the main sustainable solutions will be classified and analysed. Focusing on the most promising ones, their impact will be evaluated by means of assessment models. At the same time, guidelines for the implementation of the green practices will be developed, along with a dashboard with the main Key Performance Indicators expected to be influenced by such practices.
As for logistics solutions for assuring product safety in food supply chains, enabling technology for advanced X-ray ultra-fast high resolution scanners, based on new generation sensors, will be studied and developed.

The main expected results are: 1)classification of the main sustainable practices in logistics, with reference to food supply chains. Current criticalities and areas of improvement will be highlighted; 2) identification of logistics solutions to assure food product safety along the supply chain. Specifically, advanced X-ray ultra-fast high resolution scanners, based on new generation sensors, will be studied and developed for the real-time control of the safety, healthiness and state of conservation of foods in logistics and distribution; 3) based on what found in 1), assessment of the impact of the main innovative logistics solutions, with reference to network design, transport, warehousing and logistics innovation (e.g., 4.0 Paradigm). The impact will be based on a set of key performance indicators that are expected to be influenced.