Technology for temperature monitoring and analysis

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Regulations and standards

In response to the increased awareness and demand for food safety and quality, several laws, standards and industry guidelines were developed for the food industry (Aung & Chang, 2014). The European Community has a number of regulations and directives concerning foodstuffs. For example, directive 178/2002 requests mandatory traceability for all food and feed products sold within the European Union (Aung & Chang, 2014). The regulated area of traceability is the continuous temperature control in refrigerated vehicles, production facilities, loading-reloading points and verified standardized equipment (Kuo & Chen, 2009). Food companies should implement systems and procedures to keep track of their suppliers as well (Chillon, 2012). Moreover, within the United Nations, the ATP agreement regulates the terms of transportation of perishable products (FFKM, 2007; TFK, 2009;). The food and safety regulations in the Swedish food market are quite strict. Livsmedelsverket [The Ministry of Food and Agriculture] is responsible for food safety and food quality, through institutions such as The National Food Administration and The Swedish Board of Agriculture.

Perishable Food Supply Chain Management

The concept of supply chain management is of high importance when it comes to the TSPP, because of factors such as the short shelf-life, wide range of products, strict traceability requirements and need of temperature control (Hoorfar, Butler & Prugger, 2011; Kuo & Chen, 2010). Moreover, perishable FSCM requires more advanced objectives, rather than just cost or responsiveness like in traditional supply chain management (Van der Vorst et al., 2012). The very high service level required in the perishable FSC further complicates its management (Katsaliak, Mustafee & Kumar, 2014). The most important quality parameters for the perishable FSC are time and temperature. In the perfect case, in order to ensure the high food quality, the temperature has to be monitored and kept within the legal ranges along the whole FSC (Lutjen, Dittmer & Veigt, 2013).

Perishable food products

The TSPP are those products that have a shorter shelf-life than non-perishable, and are the subject to decay or spoilage (Hsu, Hung & Li, 2007). Hsu et al. (2007) state that perishable product rapidly decrease in value over time. Van der Vorst et al. (2012) explain that a perishable product should meet the following criteria: high rate of deterioration, need of specific storage and transportation conditions and obsolescence date. For the purpose of the current research, the last definition will be taken into consideration. When it comes to the temperature sensitivity, Fredriksson and Liljestrand (2015) divide the TSPP in four subgroups: ambient (ambient temperature – grain, wine, bread), chilled (1.5°C to +18°C), frozen (-10°C to 12°C) and deep frozen (-18°C – berries, ice cream, butter, concentrated juices, deep frozen meat, poultry, fish).

Perishable Food Supply Chain Goals

An additional pressure exists in the perishable FSCM because of the high importance of quality and safety issues in the consciousness of governments and consumers (Wang & O’brien, 2009). The rising awareness about food safety and quality is mainly due to the increased number of food and waterborne diseases (World Health Organization, 2002; Koutsoumanis, Taoukis & Nychas, 2005). For example, foodborne diseases are the cause of death for around 1.8 million people annually (Raab, Petersen & Kreyenschmidt, 2011). Thus, objectives such as quality and safety should be a priority in the FSCM. Manzini and Accorsi (2013) introduce an integrated framework for FSC assessment emphasizing on four key goals, comprising simultaneous control of quality, safety, sustainability and logistics efficiency of food products and processes along the whole FSC, from farm-to-fork (see Appendix1; Figure 2.1). The present research, however, is going to address only the quality and safety goals, as they are recognized as priorities from the cold logistics providers (Coolchain Europe, 2015).

The Cold Chain

The next section of the literature review is dedicated to the cold chain, the CCM and the CCL in attempt to provide a good basis for the understanding of the cold chain infrastructure and framework of operation. A cold chain is a supply chain that ensures the integrity and quality of the product through temperature and humidity control (Arduino et al., 2013; Bharti, 2014; Faisal, 2011;). According to Rodrigue (2013), the main purpose of the cold chain is to protect the integrity of TSPP from the point of production and processing, through each of the transport stages – handling, loading, unloading, and storage – and may even extend to storage at the consuming household. In addition, Salin and Nayga (2003) explore a value-based concept of the chain and assume that the cold chain preserves value and as such is a necessity for the global food trade. The main differences between normal and cold supply chain are presented in Appendix 3.

Table of Contents :

• List of Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 Background
  • 1.2 Problem statement
  • 1.3 Purpose and Research Questions
  • 1.4 Delimitation
  • 1.5 Thesis Disposition
• 2. Literature review
  • 2.1 Connection between research questions and literature review
  • 2.2 Food industry of Sweden
    • 2.2.1 Food supply chain actors
    • 2.2.2 Regulations and standards
  • 2.3 Perishable Food Supply Chain Management
    • 2.3.1 Perishable food products
    • 2.3.2 Perishable Food Supply Chain Goals
    • 2.3.3 Perishable Food Supply Chain Process flow
  • 2.4 The Cold Chain
    • 2.4.1 Cold Chain Management
    • 2.4.2 Cold Chain Logistics
    • 2.4.3 Food Transportation
    • 2.4.4 Managerial perspective of CCM and temperature monitoring
  • 2.5 Technology for temperature monitoring and analysis
    • 2.5.1 Technology for capturing temperature data
    • 2.5.2 Technology for analysis of temperature data
  • 2.6 Alignment of Technology, People and Processes
  • 2.7 Collaboration within the FSC
  • 2.8 Summary of the literature review
• 3. Methodology
  • 3.1 Research Approach
  • 3.2 Methodological choice
  • 3.3 Research strategy
  • 3.4 Time horizon
  • 3.5 Data collection
    • 3.5.1 Secondary data collection
    • 3.5.2 Primary data collection method
  • 3.6 Data analysis
  • 3.7 Trustworthiness of the research
  • 3.8 Limitations
  • 3.9 Summary of the method
• 4. Empirical Findings
  • 4.1 Company Background
  • 4.2 Findings
    • 4.2.1 Current CCL processes and application of TMS in Sweden
    • 4.2.2 Managerial perspective
• 5. Analysis
  • 5.1 Current application of TMS in CCL in Sweden
  • 5.2 Advanced TMS Capabilities
  • 5.3 Advanced TMS market penetration
  • 5.4 Managerial perspective:
    • 5.4.1 Goals of the CCL and its actors’ objectives
    • 5.4.2 User knowledge
    • 5.4.3 Collaboration and alignment within the supply chain
  • 5.5 Enhanced utilization of TMS through an integrated approach
• 6. Conclusion
• 7. Discussions
  • 7.1 Managerial Implications
  • 7.2 Future research
• List of references

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Cold Chain Management in the Food Industry of Sweden