ESTUDIO ESTADÍSTICO

Food waste is occurring at different stages of the supply chain from farms to the retailer. Various techniques have been employed in the past to address this issue by identifying the root causes of food waste and consequently mitigating them such as lean principles (Cox & Chicksand, 2005), value chain analysis (Taylor, 2006), six sigma (Nabhani & Shokri, 2009), and just in time principle. Simons et al., (2005) have applied the lean approach to the cutting room of red meat industry. This research consists of five case studies: involving

41 two traditional and three advanced cutting rooms. A productivity gap of around 25% was observed between advanced and traditional cutting rooms because of application of lean procedures like Takt time and work standardization in advanced cutting rooms. Zokaei & Simons, (2006) has highlighted the advantages of application of lean techniques throughout the red meat supply chain in UK. The major aspects of lean techniques considered were Takt time and work standardization. These techniques were applied to eight value chains of red meat in UK. Results obtained showed that there is potential of 2- 3% saving for all stakeholders of red meat supply chain viz. farmer, slaughterhouse, processor and retailer.

Cicatiello et al., (2016) have explored the waste occurring at retailer end and its environmental, economic and social implications. The data collected from an Italian supermarket project was utilized to develop food waste recovery strategy. In this research, both physical and monetary value of food was considered. Mena et al., (2011) have found out the principal causes leading to food waste in the supplier retailer interface. The management practices of UK and Spain have been compared using current reality tree method. Various good practices such as efficient forecasting, shelf life management, promotion management, cold chain management and proper training to employees, etc. have been suggested to mitigate the root causes of waste. Katajajuuri et al., (2014) has quantified the amount of avoidable waste occurring in the food production and consumption chain in Finland. It was found that households were creating 130 million Kg of food waste per year. The waste occurring in food service sector is about 75 to 85 million kg per year. The whole food industry in Finland was producing waste of 75-140 million kg per annum. It was concluded that overall 335-460 million kg of waste is generated in the Finnish food chain (excluding farming sector).

Francis et al., (2008) have employed value chain analysis technique to evaluate UK beef sector. Waste elimination strategy was developed at producer and processor level in UK beef supply chain by comparing them with Argentine counterparts. Also, good management practices are proposed to minimise the waste. Cox et al., (2007) has investigated the scope of application of lean techniques on lamb, pig and beef supply chains in UK. They have conducted an action research on above mentioned supply chains by interviewing various participants from farm to consumers at each stage of supply chain. Their research revealed that application of lean techniques is more sophisticated on beef and lamb as compared to pork. The participants of pork supply chain who followed lean

42 techniques observed that commercial returns were not as high as expected. Simons & Taylor (2007) have used Food Value Chain Analysis (FVCA) on value added pork for a retailer to improve the product flow and reduce waste in their supply chain. System theory has been used in their analysis of FVCA on four subsystems of an organization, which are goal and values, human resources, logistics and management structure. The results obtained gave a positive indication of the potential of benefits in terms of logistics along the pork supply chain. Simultaneously, they identified two issues in implementation which are intercompany alignment of other subsystems apart from logistics and supply chain organizational stability through time.

Taylor (2006) has shown the opportunities for strategic modifications in UK agri food supply chains by using value chain analysis method. They have proposed a primitive model of integrated supply chain using lean principles. This research was built on the case study of two pork supply chains. Eventually, they highlighted the benefits of the integrated supply chain for agri food products. Perez et al., (2010) has investigated the performance of Catalan pork sector in terms of adoption of lean principles. The methods used for their research were multiple case studies and interviews along the whole Catalan pork supply chain from farm gate to consumers. It was found out that the Catalan pork sector has been actively utilizing productive techniques of lean principles especially demand management. De Steur et al., (2016) have demonstrated the application of value stream mapping in identifying the root causes of food waste, their mitigation and in retaining the nutritional value of food products throughout the supply chain. A systematic literature review of 24 research articles focused on reducing waste in the various stages of supply chain (production, processing, storage, retail, food service and consumption was performed. The findings of the study were discarding of food products and the losses of nutrients predominantly at the premises of processor were the major contributor of food waste. It was concluded that lead time is the most appropriate performance indicator among these studies.

Sgarbossa and Russo, (2017) presented a platform for creating closed loop supply chain models, enhancing their scale to retrieve resource value from waste by-products (such as unavoidable waste). Their framework was demonstrated by case study on meat supply chain utilising the waste generated as a form of resource thereby preventing their disposal to landfill. The resource recovery activities proposed in this study has facilitated a channel

43 to accommodate the waste generated as a resource within the supply chain activities to accomplish an efficient supply chain.

The majority of waste in beef supply chain is generated at the consumer end. Waste is generated by various issues such as discolouration of beef products prior to expiry of shelf life (Jeyamkondan & Holley, 2000), lack of tenderness (Goodson et al., 2002; Huffman et al., 1996), presence of extra fat (Brunsø et al., 2005), oxidisation of beef (Brooks, 2007), presence of foreign bodies in beef products (FSA reports: Incident Report 2015) and inefficient cold chain management (Kim et al., 2012; Mena et al., 2011). These root causes are occurring at consumer end because of the issues within the beef supply chain. For instance, discoloration of beef could be due to lack of vitamin E in the diet of cattle (Liu et al., 1995; Houben et al. 2000; Cabedo et al., 1998; O’Grady et al., 1998; Lavelle et al., 1995; Mitsumoto et al., 1993) and temperature abuse of beef products along the supply chain (Rogers et al., 2014; Jakobsen & Bertelsen, 2000; Gill & McGinnis, 1995; van Laack et al., 1996; Jeremiah & Gibson, 2001; Greer & Jones, 1991).

Lack of tenderness is because of absence or inefficient maturation of carcass from which beef products are derived (Riley et al., 2005; Vitale et al., 2014; Franco et al., 2009; Gruber et al., 2006; Monsón et al., 2004; Sañudo et al., 2004; Troy and Kerry, 2010). Presence of extra fat could be due to cattle being not raised as per the weight and conformation specifications of the retailer (Hanset et al, 1987; Herva et al., 2011; Borgogno et al., 2016; AHDB Industry Consulting, 2008; Boligon et al., 2011) and inefficient trimming procedures in the boning hall in abattoir (Francis et al., 2008; Mena et al., 2014; Kale et al., 2010; Watson, 1994; Cox et al., 2007). The oxidisation of beef could be occurring because of improper packaging at abattoir and processor, damage of packaging along the supply chain and inappropriate packaging techniques being followed (Brooks, 2007; Lund, 2007; Singh et al., 2015). The presence of foreign bodies could be due to improper packaging because of machine error at abattoir and processor, lack of safety checks such as metal detection, physical inspection and lack of renowned food safety process management procedures being followed such as HACCP (Goodwin, 2014). The inefficient cold chain management could be because of lack of periodic maintenance of refrigeration equipment (Kim et al., 2012).

44 Table 2.1 Summary of research work on waste minimisation in red meat supply chain

S.No. System

Boundary

Method Region Reference

1. Abattoir & processor

Lean principles UK Simons et al., (2005)

2. Processor to retailer

Empirical research and current reality tree

UK and Spain Mena et al., (2011)

3. Retailer Case study Italy Cicatiello et al.,

(2016) 4. Farm to

retailer

Lean principles, value chain analysis & systems theory

UK Zokaei & Simons, (2006); Simons & Taylor (2007) 5. Farm to foodservice restaurant Value chain analysis UK Francis et al., (2008) 6. Farm to consumer Empirical research, value chain analysis, case studies, Systematic literature review UK; Spain; Finland; Belgium Cox et al., (2007); Taylor (2006); Perez et al., (2010); Katajajuuri et al., (2014); De Steur et al., (2016)

The maximum amount of food waste in the supply chains is generated by the consumers. It could be observed from Table 2.1 that most of studies involving consumers are done by empirical research (interview, survey, etc.). However, these techniques are not able to attract larger audiences and often they consist of biased responses. There is plenty of useful information available on social media, which reflects the true opinion of consumers, which could be analysed to explore consumer sentiments regarding various issues. Keeping this in mind, in this thesis, social media (Twitter) data has been used for waste minimisation and to develop consumer centric supply chains. The findings of the analysis have been linked to the upstream of the supply chain so that an appropriate waste minimisation strategy could be developed.

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