Managing Food Quality Risk in Global Supply Chain: A Risk Management Framework

Abstract

Today, the food sector is one of the sectors most vulnerable to intentional contamination by debilitating agents [ 1 ]. Some cases of contaminated food have indicated that product quality risk is one of the vulnerabilities in the global supply chain. A series of company scandals, affecting reputation and causing the recall of products and increasing costs have hit the food industry. The obvious problem is that even a minor incident in one part of the chain can have disastrous effects on other parts of the supply chain. Thus, risks are transmitted through the chain. Even though the dangers from members in the supply chain are small, the cumulative effect becomes significant. The aim of this study is to propose an integrated supply chain risk management framework for practitioners that can provide directions for how to evaluate food quality risk in the global supply chain. For validating the proposed model in-depth, a case study is conducted on a food SME distributor in Central America. The case study investigates how product quality risks are handled according to the proposed framework.