Logistic Techniques to Reduce Losses in Fresh Food Supply Chain

This paper discusses various techniques that have been developed to improve the logistics in FFV (Fresh Food and Vegetable) supply chain. The Global Agenda Council of Supply Chains and Logistics presented that the largest quantity of food related losses in fruits and vegetables are caused by improper maintenance, and also due to misalliance between supply and demand. Implementation of techniques like Intelligent Container, using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags and some other logistic principles like FIFO (First in First Out), FEFO (First Expire First Out), dynamic FEFO have been studied to understand the logistics of food in a better way. In the FEFO technique, the product that expires first is sent out of the warehouse first, for further delivery. In addition, there are sensing techniques for the reduction of food losses, and also methods for decision making. On the basis of identification of the radio frequencies, RFID helps at enabling communication between the tag and a remote computer, from a distance without the requirement of a line of sight. This paper also reviews two case studies, of berries and bananas, based on the intelligent container technology.