The food supply chain is a complex structure to create and manage. Right from the food crops production to the delivery into the table, the number of participants and the processes is more. Controlling all of them and assuring integrity in all the operational stages are not the easier things in current scenarios.
In parallel, the customer’s expectations also changed in the market. They highly prefer the players who offer a fresh, healthy, and wide range of food options. To meet those expectations, the restaurant owners or food processing units work hard and face a lot of difficulties while registering their brand in the food delivery industry. On-demand food delivery app are getting familiar in the market and this may provide a satisfactory experience to the customers with the demanding features.
With the focus on providing a satisfactory experience to the customers, more players are involved in the food delivery process and this turns to increase the size of the food supply chain. Due to this, the integrity of the food supply chain is unavoidable in current situations.
Upgrades of Food Supply Chain Financing-Needed One in 2021
Generally, the major operations of the food supply chain are: collecting items for preparation, food production, process, safe storage of food, distribution. The compromise on any stage affects all other stages and this turns the entire food supply chain into an issued one.
How far the identification of issues and the corresponding solutions make the food supply chain a stable and sustainable one against the fluctuations in the market. For 2021, the common upgrades in the food supply chain are to be observed as follows.
Smart Contracts
Right from the goods movements to the invoice preparation, automating each stage by using the data regarding contractual obligations is necessary. A series of computer code can be preferred for it and such a thing is referred to as smart contracts. Status of transactions, payment releasing, and the ledger recording are necessary to be automated through smart contracts.
Minimizing Inventory Errors
The errors in the inventory data will be the serious cause and this largely affects the shipments and thus the reputation of the restaurants. The capture of all types of transactions, cashflows, and the ledger entries related to each inventory data is the necessary upgrade in the future.
Focusing on the assurance of accuracy while making the entries is the main thing to reduce the inventory errors. The minimization of errors in the inventory details allows the restaurant owners to carry the food delivery process as an impressive one and uninterruptible on any scenarios.
Decision Making Improvement
Auditing is the essential thing to validate the transactions carried out in all the stages of the food supply chain. The prior identification of the violation in the smart contracts will be a helpful metric to improve the decision-making process.
With these upgrades, the food supply chain is getting ready for the year 2021. The participants in the food supply chain must be aware of certain metrics to cope up with these upgrades easily.
5 Tips to Build Integrity in Food Supply Chain
Ensuring integrity in the complete food supply chain from farm to table is the critical thing to make the customers aware of brand value. Turning food defense into food supply chain integrity is the recent trend in the market and the tips to build are listed as follows.
Assure Traceability
Tracking the food products at each stage of the food supply chain is an important and demanding one in the food delivery marketplace. Nowadays, customers expect information regarding the origin of food ingredients to ensure safety.
Focusing on this aspect, the track record of the food products is the necessary thing. Lack of traceability is a serious issue and this breaks the customer’s trust in the brand value. The inaccurate track record introduces errors and delays the workflows.
By integrating the blockchain technology with the food supply chain, both the storage and information shares happen across the network. The adding of the information into the blockchain technology will be the permanent one. With this, the information is free from hacking, manipulation, and corruption.
Due to this unaltered facility, the data sharing across the large size players like suppliers, production unit owners, distributors is the accurate one and this also enhances the trust level of the customers.
Ensure Freshness of Food Products
The main pressure on the food manufacturers and the distributors are to maintain the freshness and quality of the food products. With the possibilities like the selection of best raw materials, best production units, and the package materials, the quality and freshness of the food get ensured. This highly demands experienced professionals in all the stages of the food supply chain.
Strengthen Communication Platforms
The communication among all the suppliers is stable or strong in order to know the quality and freshness of the products. The instant updates on each stage make all the players involved in the food supply chain get necessary awareness. The small updates in the information are effectively communicated due to the latest technology integration.
Partner With Trustworthy Logistics Player
Logistics players are one of the responsible persons to make the entire food supply chain and they have immediate interaction with the customers in the market. Making trustworthy deals with independent logistics players is an important one for the food production unit owners. By enrolling the trip histories, payments collection, and their profile details on the smart contracts, accurate tracking is the feasible one.
Workable Technology
While integrating blockchain technology into the food supply chain, several challenges are raised in the market. Data update, multi-platform operation, large quantity data handling are the common challenges.
Dealing with all those via manual workflows is the critical one and this highly demands suitable technology. Besides, the implemented technology must be workable across various platforms.
Final Thoughts
Getting ready with the safe food supply chain is a trendy activity and the ensure of integrity in this also important to meet the wide range of new things in forthcoming years. To meet the customer’s expectations wisely, the participants in the food supply chain are familiar with certain tactics. Use the tactics listed above clearly to assure integrity in the food supply chain and grow in the market.
