Motivations and Challenges for Food Companies in Using IoT Sensors for Reducing Food Waste: Some Insights and a Road Map for the Future

Abstract

Food waste is a serious problem worldwide, including in Europe. Research efforts are being carried out to reduce food waste. In this paper, we focus on using modern digital technologies (also known as Industry 4.0 technologies) to reduce waste in food supply chains. Based on interactions with a number of food companies in Europe over the last four years using Action Research, we provide new insights on the motivations and challenges for food companies when they are engaged in the use of technologies for reducing food waste in their supply chains. Motivations for firms include improved food quality of their produce, improved reliability, support in meeting legal requirements, a green image, and improved revenues from selling the food that has been saved. However, data security issues and trust issues posed challenges in using these technologies. Since this is an emerging area of research, we look at potential business models for technology companies for working with food companies in reducing food waste, identify value propositions and value capture, and look at how these investments in technologies can improve the sustainability of food businesses. We believe technology companies can leverage the opportunities, develop new business models with value propositions around the use of technologies, and support food companies via timely alerts in case of potential quality issues. Value capture occurs via the sale of hardware and subscriptions.

Exploring the application of ICTs in decarbonizing the agriculture supply chain: A literature review and research agenda

“…According to Refs. [ 8 , 122 ], the principal reasons behind food waste include improper produce storage and handling, a lack of technological capabilities and infrastructure for handling produce, cold chain, and shipping; in simple terms, food waste is seen at every stage of the ASC. Technologies, however, could control this situation and enhance the global community with the proper infrastructure.…”

“…The challenges in implementing IoT-based ASC are connected with the power management of IoT gadgets, the need for more robust standardization, compatibility with the previous system, user-centered design, scalability issues, resilience for field implementations, and design and security of flexible hardware and software [ 80 , 122 ]. A significant worry is the security of the IoT-based system.…”

How Do Existing Organizational Theories Help in Understanding the Responses of Food Companies for Reducing Food Waste?

“…Food waste that ends up in landfills emits significant greenhouse gases and hence reducing food waste has significant environmental benefits. Thus, a circular economy business model aimed at zero food waste in circular food supply chains will be able to reach all the three pillars of sustainability [5]. Thus, saving food waste contributes to the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).…”

“…This finding has been confirmed by Kalmykova et al [2], who, based on a literature review, observe that manufacturing and distributions are not widely studied in the context of CE. One reason for the relative under-exploration of food waste in supply chains could be because food waste that occurs in supply chains is generally considered as an unavoidable food loss [5].…”

“…This is the primary research gap that this paper aims to address. Based on an extensive interaction with food companies as part of a large European research project [5], we examine whether popular existing theories in the OM discipline (e.g., [6,7]) can help us to understand the behavior of food companies and their supply chain partners. Accordingly, the remaining objectives of this research are (ii) to identify suitable theories (that are popular in the OM discipline and other theories borrowed from other disciplines) that are relevant for reducing food waste in CFSCs, (iii) to examine how these theories can help understand the observed behavior of food companies, and (iv) to identify the scope for future research in explaining certain interesting observations that are not apparent when existing theories are used.…”