Food traceability as an integral part of logistics management in food and agricultural supply chain

The contemporary food supply chain (FSC) should adequately provide information that consumers and other concerned bodies need to know such as variety of the food attributes, country of origin, animal welfare, and genetic engineering related issues. For this, effective food traceability system (FTS) is important. The objective of this study was to conduct a comprehensive literature review on food traceability issues. About 74 studies, mainly focusing on food traceability issues and published during 2000–2013, were reviewed. Based on the review results, the definition, driving forces, barriers in developing and implementing FTSs, benefits, traceability technologies, improvements, and performances of FTSs have been identified and discussed. Considering FTS as an integral part of logistics management, new conceptual definition of FTS has been provided. This review has pointed out that the issue of developing effective and full chain FTS is quite complex in nature as it requires a deeper understanding of real processes from different perspectives such as economic, legal, technological, and social issues. Therefore, future researches (recommended here) on traceability should focus on: integration of traceability activities with food logistics activities; technological aspects of FTSs; the linkage between traceability system and food production units; standardization of data capturing and information exchange; awareness creation strategies; continuity of information flow and effective communication of traceability information to consumers and other stakeholders; the linkage between different drivers of FTS; improvement strategies of FTS; and development of performance evaluation frameworks for FTSs.