Improving knowledge and practices in fresh produce chains

A successful supply chain must delivery the right product, value and satisfaction to the end customer, and profitability for its participants. Critical to getting the product right is the practices used to produce and maintain product quality through the supply chain from production to sale to the end customer. This paper describes the approach used by a R&D team to add value to supply chains through improving knowledge and practices. The desired outcome is better produce quality for consumers and more control and less wastage for chain participants. The team worked with specific supply chains to identify areas for improvement and to develop, test and implement improved practices. The knowledge gained was communicated to the industry to gain wider adoption of results. Three conditions were identified as critical for practice change - motivation, knowledge, and capacity for change. For improvement in practices to occur, a business must be motivated and have the knowledge and capacity to improve. Two case studies of working with Australian supply chains (mango and melons) are presented to illustrate our participatory methodology. A key activity is monitoring produce quality and handling practices and conditions to demonstrate to participants the points where quality deterioration occurs in the supply chain. This participatory approach is successful because working with supply chain participants generates knowledge and solutions to real problems. It enables the participants to observe the effect of handling practices and conditions on produce quality, gain knowledge and assess the benefits of improvements. Where existing knowledge is not present, research is conducted to fill the knowledge gaps. IV International Conference on Managing Quality in Chains - The Integrated View on Fruits and Vegetables Quality

Harmonising GAP programs for fresh produce in ASEAN region

Many forces are driving the global demand for assurance that fruit and vegetables are safe to eat and of the right quality, and are produced and handled in a manner that does not cause harm to the environment and the health, safety and welfare of workers. The impact of these driving forces is that retailer requirements for suppliers to comply with Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) is increasing and governments are strengthening legal requirements for food safety, environmental protection, and worker health, safety and welfare. The implementation of GAP programs currently within the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) region varies, with some countries having government certified systems and others beginning the journey with awareness programs for farmers. Under a project funded by the ASEAN Australia Development Cooperation Program, a standard for ASEAN GAP has been developed to harmonise GAP Programs in the region. The goal is to facilitate trade between ASEAN countries and to global markets, improve viability for farmers, and help sustain a safe food supply and the environment. ASEAN GAP is an umbrella standard that individual member countries will benchmark their national programs against to gain equivalence. The scope of ASEAN GAP covers the production, harvesting and postharvest handling of fresh fruit and vegetables on farm and postharvest handling in locations where produce is packed for sale. ASEAN GAP consists of four modules covering food safety, environmental management, worker health, safety and welfare, and produce quality. Each module can be used alone or in combination with other modules. This enables progressive implementation of ASEAN GAP, module by module based on individual country priorities.

Perceptions of power and dependence between retail buyers and fresh produce suppliers within the Australian fresh produce industry

The research aims to gain a deeper understanding of direct buyer-supplier relationships within the Australian fresh produce industry. Specifically, dependence and power within the buyer-supplier relationship are considered in terms of their antecedents and their relationships their-in. In-depth interviews with buyers and suppliers provided the means by which to expose perceptions with regard to the relative importance of dependence and power within the relationship. The research reveals that relationship antecedents (trading offer: price and quality) impact power and dependence and are, in tum, impacted by them.

Fresh Produce Safety and Good Agricultural Practices: Stakeholders' Perception and Consumers' Choice in Thailand

Concerns of Thai consumers on food safety have been recently increasing, especially in urban areas and for fresh produce because food safety scandals, such as chemical residues on fresh produce (e.g., cabbage) still frequently occur. The Thai government tried to meet consumer needs by imposing in the domestic market a stronger regulation aimed at increasing the baseline level of food safety assurance and by introducing a voluntary standard (based on Good Agricultural Practices or GAPs and known as Q-GAP) and the related food safety label (i.e., Q mark). However, since standards and regulations are weakly implemented in the domestic market compared to exported products, there is still a lack of Thai consumers’ confidence in the safety of local food products. In this work the current situation of GAPs adoption in Thai fresh produce production is analysed. Furthermore, it is studied whether Thai consumers place value on food safety labels available on the market, to know whether consumer demand could drive the market of certified safer products. This study contains three essays: 1) a review of the literature, 2) a qualitative study on stakeholders' perception toward GAPs adoption and 3) a quantitative study, aimed at analysing consumers' preferences and willingness-to-pay for food safety labels on fresh produce using a discrete choice experiment. This dissertation contributes to the economics of quality assurance and labelling, specifically addressing GAPs and food safety label in the fresh produce supply chain. Results show that Q-GAP could be effectively used to improve food safety in Thai domestic market, but its credibility should be improved. Stakeholder’s awareness toward food safety issues and the delivery of reliable and sound information are crucial. Thai consumers are willing to pay a premium price for food safety labelled produce over unlabelled ones. Implications for both government and business decision-makers are discussed.

The Function and Consequences of Alternative Fresh Produce Supply Chain Models

Around the world, consumers and retailers of fresh produce are becoming more and more discerning about factors such as food safety and traceability, health, convenience and the sustainability of production systems, and in doing so they are changing the way in which fresh produce supply chains are configured and managed. When consumers demand fresh, safe, convenient, value-for-money produce, retailers in an increasingly competitive environment are attracted to those business models most capable of meeting these demands profitably. Traditional models are proving less and less able to deliver competitive advantage in such an environment. As a result, opportunistic, adversarial, price-based approaches to doing business between chain members are being replaced by approaches that are more strategic, collaborative and value-based. The shaping force behind this change is the need for producers, wholesalers, category managers, retailers and consumers to have more certainty about the performance of the supply chains upon which they rely. Certainty is generated through the supply chain's ability to create, deliver and share value. How to build supply chains that create, deliver and share value is arguably the single biggest challenge to the competitiveness of fresh produce firms, and therefore to the industries to which they belong.

Get ready for a fruit fight: the fallout from Coles' price war on produce

Amid tough trading conditions and intense competition, Coles has fired the latest salvo in its ongoing supermarket war with Woolworths, announcing it will reduce the price of some fruit and vegetables by 50%. The move is the latest in a battle between the supermarket giants to wrest market share and follows previous cuts to staples such as milk and bread, beer and chicken. However, Australia’s peak industry body of vegetable growers, Ausveg, is concerned about the impact the price decision will have on growers' livelihoods.

A critical review: Why isn't "cold pasteurization" being used widespread as a method to prevent food-related illnesses as a result of the consumption of ready-to-eat, fresh fruits, and vegetables

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that foodborne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year. The American public is becoming more health conscious and there has been an increase in the dietary intake of fresh fruits and vegetables. Affluence and demand for convenience has allowed consumers to opt for pre-processed packaged fresh fruits and vegetables. These pre-processed foods are considered Ready-to-Eat. They have many of the advantages of fresh produce without the inconvenience of processing at home. After seeing a decline in food-related illnesses between 1996 and 2004, due to an improvement in meat and poultry safety, tainted produce has tilted the numbers back. This has resulted in none of the Healthy People 2010 targets for food-related illness reduction being reached. Irradiation has been shown to be effective in eliminating many of the foodborne pathogens. The application of irradiation as a food safety treatment has been widely endorsed by many of the major associations involved with food safety and public health. Despite these endorsements there has been very little use of this technology to date for reducing the disease burden associated with the consumption of these products. A review of the available literature since the passage of the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act was conducted on the barriers to implementing irradiation as a food safety process for fresh fruits and vegetables. The impediments to adopting widespread utilization of irradiation food processing as a food safety measure involve a complex array of legislative, regulatory, industry, and consumer issues. The FDA’s approval process limits the expansion of the list of foods approved for the application of irradiation as a food safety process. There is also a lack of capacity within the industry to meet the needs of a geographically dispersed industry.^

HCI & sustainable food culture : a design framework for engagement

The current food practices around the world raises concerns for food insecurity in the future. Urban / suburban / and peri-urban environments are particularly problematic in their segregation from rural areas where the natural food sources are grown and harvested. Soaring urban population growth only deteriorates the lack of understanding in and access to fresh produce for the people who live, work, and play in the city. This paper explores the role of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design in encouraging individual users to participate in creating sustainable food cultures in urban environments. The paper takes a disciplinary perspective of urban informatics and presents five core constituents of the HCI design framework to encourage sustainable food culture in the city via ubiquitous technologies: the perspective of transdisciplinarity; the domains of interest of people, place, and technology; and the perspective of design.

Taste over waste: Ugly food movement winning friends

Consumer driven food trends are nothing new. “Organics”, gluten-free, and more recently buying “local” have all captured consumers, encouraging supermarkets around the globe and in Australia to respond. But the next emerging European food trend that may have the biggest impact on what we buy each week is “ugly food”.