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The 2008 Chinese melamine milk scandal resulted in six reported fatalities and affected around 300,000 children, of whom 54,000 were hospitalised. Previous studies have used linear approaches to examine the root causes of the melamine milk scandal.

In the present study, we applied a systems approach to the melamine milk scandal to identify the complex systems-level failures across the supply chain leading to the incident and why food fraud incidents such as this occurred in the dairy sector. Additionally, systemic failures associated with food fraud vulnerability factors were considered (i.e. opportunities, motivation and control measures).

48 contributory factors of influence were identified and grouped across six sociotechnical levels across the Chinese dairy system, from government to equipment and surroundings. Lack of vertical integration (processes and communication) contributed to the failure. When viewed from a broader perspective, the melamine milk scandal can be linked to a series of human errors and organisational issues associated with government bodies, the dairy supply chain, individual organisations and management decisions and individual actions of staff or processes.

This approach is of value to policymakers and the industry as it supports public health investigations of food fraud incidents and proactive food safety management.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to analyse a food safety or fraud incident using the AcciMap approach and the food fraud vulnerability assessment (FFVA) technique. AcciMap analysis is applied to both unintentional and intentional aspects of the incident.

Purpose: The study aims to explore the wider acceptance of blockchain technology and growing faith in this technology among all business domains to mitigate the chances of fraud in various sectors.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors focus on studies conducted during 2015–2022 using keywords such as blockchain, fraud detection and financial domain for Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The SLR approach entails two databases, namely, Scopus and IEEE Xplore, to seek relevant articles covering the effectiveness of blockchain technology in controlling financial fraud.

Findings: The findings of the research explored different types of business domains using blockchains in detecting fraud. They examined their effectiveness in other sectors such as insurance, banks, online transactions, real estate, credit card usage, etc.

Practical Implications: The results of this research highlight (1) the real-life applications of blockchain technology to secure the gateway for online transactions; (2) people from diverse backgrounds with different business objectives can strongly rely on blockchains to prevent fraud.

Originality/Value: The SLR conducted in this study assists in the identification of future avenues with practical implications, making researchers aware of the work so far carried out for checking the effectiveness of blockchain; however, it does not ignore the possibility of zero to less effectiveness in some businesses which is yet to be explored.

This study aims to investigate the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities on supply chain fraud and sustainability within the context of Ghana’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Additionally, the research explores the mediating role of supply chain fraud in the relationship between ICT capabilities and supply chain sustainability.

Data were collected from 102 respondents within Ghana’s SME sector, and the research employed the dynamic capability theory as the conceptual framework. The study utilized partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to develop and analyze the proposed model.

The results of the study reveal a significant reduction in supply chain fraud attributable to enhanced ICT capabilities within Ghanaian SMEs. Moreover, ICT capabilities exert a significant positive influence on supply chain sustainability. Importantly, supply chain fraud emerges as a mediator, elucidating its role at the nexus of supply chain sustainability and ICT capabilities.

This research contributes to the limited body of evidence on the interconnectedness of ICT capabilities, supply chain fraud and supply chain sustainability, particularly within the context of Ghanaian SMEs. Notably, this study pioneers an examination of the mediating impact of supply chain fraud on the relationship between ICT capabilities and supply chain sustainability.

The rising number of food recalls has raised concerns about complexity, globalization and weak governance in the food supply chain. This paper aims to investigate the recall of plant-based products with data from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Introducing the structural topic modeling method allowed us to test theories on recall in the context of sustainable food consumption, enhancing the understanding of food recall processes. This approach helps identify latent topics of product recalls and their interwoven relationships with various stakeholders.

The results answer a standing research call for empirical investigation in a nascent food industry to identify stakeholders’ engagements for food safety crisis management for corporate social responsibility practices. This finding provides novel insights on managing threats to food safety at an industry level to extend existing antecedents and consequences of product recall at a micro level.

For practitioners, this empirical finding may provide insights into stakeholder management and develop evidence-based strategies to prevent threats to food safety. For public policymakers, this analysis may help identify patterns of recalls and assist guidelines and alarm systems (e.g. EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) on threats in the food supply chain.

Two detected clusters, such as opportunisms of market actors in the plant-based food system and food culture, from the analysis help understand corporate social responsibility and food safety in the plant-based food industry.

Blockchain technology (BCT), since its emergence touted to be disruptive, is gaining momentum, especially in the agri-food system owing to its multiple benefits.

The authors attempted to conduct a systematic bibliometric visualization analysis of the BCT in the agri-food system. The analysis investigated the list of countries and institutions that conducted research on BCT in agriculture, growth trend analysis in research publications, bibliographic coupling of journals using the VOSviewer tool, and the countries and institutions researching BCT.

The authors discovered that China, the USA and India were the highly active countries in BCT research and publication. However, India has only limited research collaboration with other countries as compared to China and the USA. The keyword analysis indicates the role of BCT in order to maintain the transparency of the supply chain by means of protecting the privacy of the personal data of the stakeholders.

More research related to the implementation of BCT in livestock, fishery and agro-forestry sector is recommended.

The case examined is of particular interest as it is concerned with efficient supply chain management.

This study adds value and evidence to the scope and benefits of BCT by providing a comprehensive literature review, with a special focus on the opportunities and challenges concerned with implementation of BCT in the Indian agri-food system.

1. Blockchain technology (BCT) – a promising tool to resolve issues in agriculture supply chain.

2. BCT ensures transparency and protection of information along the supply chain transactions.

3. China, the USA and India are the highly active countries in BCT research and publication.

4. Multiple potential benefits to stakeholders are attributed to the BCT in the agri-food system.

5. The key challenge is to bridge the digital gap between developed and developing nations.

6. Future research on BCT should aim at easing and undistorted competition among stakeholders.

Blockchain technology (BCT) – a promising tool to resolve issues in agriculture supply chain.

BCT ensures transparency and protection of information along the supply chain transactions.

China, the USA and India are the highly active countries in BCT research and publication.

Multiple potential benefits to stakeholders are attributed to the BCT in the agri-food system.

The key challenge is to bridge the digital gap between developed and developing nations.

Future research on BCT should aim at easing and undistorted competition among stakeholders.

Blockchain technology (BCT) has emerged as a powerful tool for enhancing transparency and trust. However, the relationship between the benefits of BCT and agri-food supply chain performance (AFSCperf) remains underexplored. Therefore, the current study investigates the influence of BCT on AFSCperf and sustainability issues.

Through a comprehensive literature review, various benefits of BCT are identified. Subsequently, a research framework is proposed based on data collected from questionnaire surveys and personal visits to professionals in the agri-food industry. The proposed framework is validated using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The findings reveal that BCT positively impacts AFSCperf by improving traceability, transparency, food safety and quality, immutability and trust. Additionally, BCT adoption enhances stakeholder collaboration, provides a decentralised network, improves data accessibility and yields a better return on investment, resulting in the overall improvement in AFSCperf and socio-economic sustainability.

This study offers valuable practical insights for practitioners and academicians, establishing empirical links between the benefits of BCT and AFSCperf and providing a deeper understanding of BCT adoption.

Stakeholders, managers, policymakers and technology providers can leverage these findings to optimise the benefits of BCT in enhancing AFSCperf. Moreover, it utilises rigorous theoretical and empirical approaches, drawing on a multidisciplinary perspective encompassing food operations and supply chain literature, public policy, information technology, strategy, organisational theory and sustainability.

The purpose of this study is to examine and review tayyiban indicators in the context of halal food production. In Islam, food produced or manufactured must be halal and tayyiban. Even though both halal and tayyiban are always mentioned together in the Quran, the halal aspect is highlighted more than tayyiban. The discussion of tayyiban’s indicators is still vague.

The study was adopted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for the review of the current research which used two main journal databases, namely, Web of Science and Scopus. Accordingly, the search resulted in a total of 40 articles that can be systematically examined.

The results of review of these articles formulated five main themes: safety, nutrition, cleanliness, quality and authenticity. These five indicators are considered relevant enough in the context of halal food production to build a comprehensive tayyiban concept.

This study enriches the field of halal food research. The concept of tayyiban as a whole has been given limited attention in academic literature. At the end of this study, a number of recommendations are suggested for the reference of future scholars.

Information and communication technology (ICT) implementation has demonstrated usefulness in supply chain coordination and efficiency optimization in various industries and sectors. This study investigates the extent of ICT deployment in fruits and vegetable supply chains (FVSC) from “farm-to-fork” to ensure food security.

This paper employs a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology and identified a total of 99 journal articles ranging from 2001 to April 2023 for analysis. The reviewed articles have been classified based on the framework proposed from the perspective of food security. Bibliometric and content analysis is carried out with the final list of articles to extract useful insights.

The findings reveal that ICT implementation in FVSC is a relatively new research area; researchers have started investigating several aspects of ICT in FVSC through varied research methodologies. Experimental research aimed at addressing food safety and condition monitoring of fruits and vegetables (FV) has started to gain traction while theory building is yet to gain traction in the literature reviewed. Findings indicate further research is required on technologies like blockchain (BCT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), especially on key objectives such as food security, and the triple-bottom-line approach of sustainability. It also indicates that implementing relevant ICTs in FVSC can help delay, if not avert, the food crisis predicted by Malthusian theory.

This study used only well-established databases to ensure quality of the studies examined. There is a possibility of missing out on articles from other sources not considered. As a result, future SLR studies may employ additional databases, such as Springer Link, Taylor and Francis, Emerald Insight and Google Scholar. Other methodologies such as expert interviews and extra empirical methodologies may also be employed to give a more balanced picture and insights into ICTs implementation in FVSC.

This study offers a summative detail of the status of ICT implementation in FVSC and can serve as a reference guide for stakeholders in developing strategies for efficient FVSC management. This research work highlights the impact of ICT implementation in FVSC on the four pillars of food security which include improved availability, accessibility, utilization and stability.

This study focuses on ICT implementation for food security in FVSC. The SLR highlights the gaps and proffers potential solutions that enhance global efforts on food security through ICT-enabled reduction in food waste and food loss in FVSC.

This paper aims to find the best tools to influence the improvement of sustainability in food supply chains (FSCs) by conducting a systematic review of articles. The reader will learn how the different industry 4.0 tools (I4.0T) benefit the FSC and the limitations of each tool.

A review of 436 articles published during the period 2019 to 2022 referenced in the Scopus and Web of Science databases was performed. The review was limited to articles published in English and directly related to Industry 4.0, circular economy and sustainability in the food supply chain.

The results show different contributions of I4.0, with some being more influential than others in improving sustainability in FSCs; for example, Internet of Things and Blockchain have been shown to contribute more toward transparency, traceability, process optimization and waste reduction.

The paper's contribution consisted of ranking according to their importance and the I4.0T that affect sustainability in FSCs by classifying the aspects of each tool and the sustainability factors through a categorization by the Analysis Hierarchy Process.

Managing supply chain risk is a crucial element in ensuring the long-term sustainability of any organization or industry. As such, identification of risks and deploying their mitigation strategies should be the focal point to sustain in the long run. The risks that are faced by food processing supply chains are gaining prominence, given more consumers requiring higher quality products while ensuring traceability. In essence, this research focuses on the supply chain risks and mitigation strategies in the spice industry of an emerging economy, Sri Lanka.

This paper integrates two popular multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques, such as the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to assess the supply chain risks and to derive their mitigation strategies for the spice industry.

Findings show that “inability to meet quality requirements” has been established as the most significant risk in the Sri Lankan spice industry. On the other hand, “vertical integration” (backward integration) has been discovered as the key mitigation strategy to ameliorate the effects of supply chain risks in this sector.

This study is exploratory, and more empirical data and statistical analyses are needed to further validate the outcomes of the study.

Despite being one of the largest trade exporters in Sri Lanka, the spice industry gets scant attention to the identification and mitigation of the risks. The authors explored the supply chain risks in the spice industry and then prioritized the suitable mitigation strategies using an integrated AHP-TOPSIS method.