Food Supply Chains as Cyber-Physical Systems: a Path for More Sustainable Personalized Nutrition

Abstract

Current food system evolved in a great degree because of the development of processing and food engineering technologies: people learned to bake bread long before the advent of agriculture; salting and smoking supported nomad lifestyles; canning allowed for longer military marches; etc. Food processing technologies went through evolution and significant optimization and currently rely on minor fraction of energy comparing with initial prototypes. Emerging processing technologies (high-pressure, pulsed electric fields, ohmic heating, ultrasound) and novel food systems (cultured biomass, 3-D bioprinting, cyber-physical chains) try to challenge the existing chains by developing potentially more nutritious and sustainable food solutions. However, new food systems rely on low technology readiness levels and estimation of their potential future benefits or drawbacks is a complex task mostly due to the lack of integrated data. The research is aimed for the development of conceptual guidelines of food production system structuring as cyber-physical systems. The study indicates that cyber-physical nature of modern food is a key for the engineering of more nutritious and sustainable paths for novel food systems. Implementation of machine learning methods for the collection, integration, and analysis of data associated with biomass production and processing on different levels from molecular to global, leads to the precise analysis of food systems and estimation of upscaling benefits, as well as possible negative rebound effects associated with societal attitude. Moreover, such data-integrated assessment systems allow transparency of chains, integration of nutritional and environmental properties, and construction of personalized nutrition technologies.

The Signs of Digitalization on Food Safety Issues: A Literature Review Focusing on Traceability

“…Based on the current systematic literature review, the following Industry 4.0 solutions contribute the most to traceability. Alladi et al 2019;Creydt and Fischer 2019;Kayikci et al 2020;Khan et al 2020;Prause et al 2020 IoT (Internet of Things) Bougdira et al 2020;Khan et al 2020;Prause et al 2020;Yadav et al 2020 CPS (Cyber-Physical Systems) Bougdira et al 2020;Lee, Azamfar, and Singh 2019;Oztemel and Gursev 2020;Smetana et al 2020 Source: own edition…”

“…Furthermore, they have an integrative role between the machine word and the cyber computational space (Lee et al, 2019). To CPS belong the usage of RFID tags (ensuring identification), sensors (serving data collection), and also the network, which is the sphere where the collected data can be transported (Oztemel & Gursev, 2020;Smetana et al, 2020). According to experts (Khan et al, 2020), there are three main areas where the combination of IoT and blockchain technologies can be applied: provenance, payments, and management.…”

“…Based on this and the previously introduced literature background, it is visible that not only individual parts of solutions exist in connection with traceability. They might cooperate and be combined, such as IoT and blockchain technologies (Kayikci et al, 2020;Khan et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2019;Oztemel & Gursev, 2020;Prause et al, 2020;Smetana et al, 2020). The author aimed to describe these I4.0 technologies and highlight the importance of customized solutions concerning food safety.…”

“…It is was found that mainly traceability, food loss, or even food fraud (Kayikci et al, 2020) are the areas where monitoring, control, feedback, and cost-reduction factors seem to be important. While examining the answers given to Q3, three main Industry 4.0 solutions came up, as specific supporters of food traceability (Alladi et al, 2019;Bougdira et al, 2020;Kayikci et al, 2020;Khan et al, 2020;Lee et al, 2019;Oztemel & Gursev, 2020;Prause et al, 2020;Smetana et al, 2020). Blockchain, IoT, and CPS solutions were mostly mentioned in the monitored literature.…”

“…This part of the doctoral research aims to explore these possibilities and to find the connection between the applicable toolkit and the set of rules that include expectations. Based on the literature review the result of the research is, that the combined application of the three most prominent Industry 4.0 solutions found, CPS (Cyber Physical Systems), IoT (Internet of Things), and blockchain technology (Alladi, Chamola, Parizi, & Choo, 2019;Bougdira, Akharraz, & Ahaitouf, 2020;Creydt & Fischer, 2019;Kayikci, Subramanian, Dora, & Bhatia, 2020;Khan, Byun, & Park, 2020;Lee, Azamfar, & Singh, 2019;Lin, Wang, Pei, & Wang, 2019;Oztemel & Gursev, 2020;Prause, Hackfort, & Lindgren, 2020;Smetana, Aganovic, & Heinz, 2020;Y. Wang, Han, & Beynon-Davies, 2019;Yadav, Luthra, & Garg, 2020) can lead to the most effective implementation of traceability.…”