Traceability implementation in food supply chain: A grey-DEMATEL approach

TLDR

Incidents of food adulteration, fraud, and disease outbreaks have eroded consumer confidence, prompting food supply chain partners to adopt traceability systems. This study aims to identify the key drivers that enable successful traceability implementation in the food supply chain and to map their causal relationships. Twelve drivers were selected through literature review and expert input, and a grey‑DEMATEL analysis was applied to evaluate and rank their interrelationships by net effect. The analysis grouped the drivers into influential and influenced categories, with food safety and quality emerging as the most influential driver, providing a basis for a framework to guide policymakers and practitioners.

Abstract

Numerous incidents of food adulteration, fraudulence and foodborne disease outbreaks have shaken the consumer confidence towards the food they consume. These incidents compel the Food Supply Chain (FSC) partners to implement an appropriate traceability system in their respective supply chains to sustain the consumer confidence. The objective of this research is to identify the drivers (major factors) which play a significant role in the successful implementation of the traceability system in FSC and evaluate the causal relationships developing therein. Twelve drivers are identified towards implementation of the traceability system in FSC through literature review and supported with expert's opinion. The grey-based DEMATEL approach is identified to evaluate these relationships among the drivers according to their net effect. Further, these drivers ranked based on the prominence and effect score. The finding of this research shows that the drivers are clustered into two groups namely: influential (cause) and influenced (effect) group. Four drivers belong to the influential group, and remaining eight are from the influenced group. The most influential driver is the "food safety and quality" which provide a significant effect on the implementation of a traceability system. This research can be a building block to develop a framework to implement the traceability system within FSC and assist the policymakers, and practitioners to identify and evaluate drivers related to the implementation of traceability system in FSC. This paper also provides a useful insight & support to the practitioners and managers in decision making for traceability implementation related issues.