Food cold chain management. From a structured literature review to a conceptual framework and research agenda

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-01-2017-0007
• Pages: 792-821
• Date: 20 June 2018
• Published date: 20 June 2018
• Author: Shashi ,Roberto Cerchione,Rajwinder Singh,Piera Centobelli,Amir Shabani
• Subject Matter: Logistics,Management science & operations

Food cold chain management

From a structured literature review to a

conceptual framework and research agenda

Shashi

School of Management Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, India

Roberto Cerchione

Department of Engineering, University of Naples Parthenope, Naples, Italy

Rajwinder Singh

School of Management Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, India

Piera Centobelli

Department of Industrial Engineering,

University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, and

Amir Shabani

Department of Information, Logistics and Innovation,

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract

Purpose –Since last few years, cold chain management (CCM) has gained growing interest among

practitioners, policymakers, researchers and academicians. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review

focused on food cold chain management (FCCM) over the last 16 years to identify state of the art in the

literature, highlight research gaps and define appropriate research questions (RQs) for future research.

Design/methodology/approach –The paper analyzes the content of 89 research articles published on the

topic of food cold chain (FCC) from 2001 to 2016 within different journals. The Scopus and Web of Science

databases were taken into consideration to shortlist research articles. Henceforth, the authors scrutinized

the FCC industry to offer some effective strategies to tackle the chain complexities. The authors also draw

interwoven between FCC infrastructure, integration, stakeholders’interest, value addition, partners’

performance and overall food cold chain performance (FCCP) into a conceptual framework.

Findings –This paper identifies four research gaps in the literature of FCC concerning the most popular

approaches used for the FCCP measurement, the performance measurement metrics, the factors which

negatively affect the FCCP and the main sustainability issues in FCC.

Originality/value –This study identifies RQs which represent possible areas of investigation to improve

the body of the FCCP evaluation and management. Furthermore, the FCC practitioners, food authorities and

researchers might find this review useful, as it draws a clear picture of research in the respective domain.

Keywords Africa, Sustainability, Supply chain, Literature review, Europe, Asia, Value addition,

Food logistics, Supply chain processes, Performance measurements, Food cold chain

Paper type Literature review

1. Introduction

The world population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.5 billion in 2050

(UN DESA, 2015),which has imposed massive pressureon food supply chain (SC) worldwide.

Globally, 1.3 billion tons food, the approximate cost of US$990billion, is getting wasted every

year. Indeed,the world’s two fastest growingand highest populated countriesChina and India

are failing to control the post-harvest food losses due to their inefficient food cold chain

performance (FCCP) (Shabani et al., 2012). Thus, large post-harvest losses intensify food

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 29 No. 3, 2018

pp. 792-821

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-01-2017-0007

Received 16 January 2017

Revised 2 July 2017

Accepted 24 August 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-4093.htm

The authors are indebted with the anonymous referees for the useful comments that greatly improved

the final manuscript. This study is partially supported by UGC, New Delhi, India, under the fellowship

Grant No. NFST-2015-17-ST-HIM-124. This paper forms part of a special section “Next-generation cold

supply chain management: research, applications and challenges”.

792

IJLM

29,3

insecurityand malnutrition. Researchstrongly advocated thatin the world’s poorest and food-

inflated region of Sub-Saharan Africa, 1 percent mitigation in the food waste can foster the

economic gain of US$40 million each year (The World Bank, 2011). Additionally, food

wastage’s carbon footprint is approximately at 3.3 billion tons of CO

2

per year (FAO, 2013).

The term cold chain (CC) is used to describe a particular SC whose activities and

processes ensure the temperature control for the perishable products (Shabani et al., 2015).

It is to preserve the integrity and the quality of products and guarantees the shelf life of

goods such as medicines, blood, flowers, fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat processed food

product, dairy products, frozen food, etc. ( Joshi et al., 2011). Food cold chain (FCC) is a

particular type of CC to keep the foodstuff in the proper condition. Therefore, food cold chain

management (FCCM) consists of a set of SC practices aimed to preserve appropriate

atmosphere for the perishable food products and defy microbial spoilage ( Joshi et al., 2011).

The FCC starts at farm level and embraces up to the consumer level. A conventional FCC

infrastructure includes pre-cooling facilities, cold ware houses, refrigerated carriers,

containers and packaging and traceability measurement tools ( Joshi et al., 2009;

Montanari, 2008). The effective control over the FCC can generate numerous benefits for

all chain partners, firms, customers and the society. Liao et al. (2011), for instance, insisted

that sustainable perishable food consumption can prevent several micronutrient deficiencies

and also chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

In the last decade, the demand for value-added food has witnessed a particular growth

throughoutthe world (Shashi et al., 2017). On theone hand, FCC plays a vital rolein satisfying

the growing demand for perishable foods (Ovca and Jevsnik, 2009). FCC is, therefore,

promotinga concept of “Global Food Village”andfacilitating food distribution in food-inflated

countries. On the other hand, an improper FCCM increases the possible risk of potential

microbial hazards, which may lead to food-borne illnesses (Ucar and Ozcelik, 2013; Rediers

et al., 2009; Jol et al., 2007). Accordingto World Health Organization’s(2015)report,duetothe

consumption of contaminated food worldwide, each year around 600 million people (almost

one in ten) fall ill, and around 420,000 people die. Furthermore, the CC’s activities cause

1 percent of the total CO

2

emission in the world (Bozorgi, 2016; James and James, 2010).

The FCCP measurement is a cumbersometask because it has distinguishingfeatures from

the other types of SCs (Shabani et al., 2012). An instance of such features is the supply and

maintenance of various temperature levels for different products throughout different

transport modes . Besides, FCC’s barriers regarding infrastructure, cost, energy, technology

and expertise potentially deteriorate the firms’efforts especially in the developing economies

( Joshi et al., 2012). As a consequence, effective planning, integration and information sharing

are becoming critical success factors in moderation of the global food competition risk.

Value addition is becoming more of a necessity than an option to compete for customers

who demand high-quality, fresh and healthy foodstuff. Value addition in the FCC

framework defines actions to improve the firm’s market share, goodwill and profitability

through enhancement of the perishable products shelf life and decrease of the post-harvest

loss rate (Aworh, 2015). Moreover, FCC value addition practices have a significant impact on

overall firm performance. Hence, it is not merely a responsibility of focal firm, but it is the

result of the collective efforts of all the SC’s partners (Shashi et al., 2017). FCC literature also

indicates that the regular measurement and evaluation of partners’value addition practices

has a greater importance than maintaining the efficiency of the chain (Maestr et al., 2017;

Minten et al., 2016; Martinez, 2014).

Food safety needs an urgent attention as it has a significant impact on people’s well-

being, and consequently, the CC’s active development is becoming a particular issue.

However, the literature on FCCM has still limitations concerning the food safety ( Joshi et al.,

2011) and no one has yet reported notable review on this domain. Basediya et al. (2013) and

Montanari (2008) presented the review studies in the FCCM field, but both confined their

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cold chain

management