Design of Experiments to Improve Food Traceability

摘要

Traceability is a concept developed in industrial engineering, and was originally seen as a tool to ensure the quality of products and production (Wall 1994). Economics literature from supply-chain management defines traceability as the information system necessary to provide the history of a product or a process from origin to point of final sale (Wilson and Clarke 1998; Jack, Pardoe, and Ritchie 1998; Timon and O'Reilly 1998). Specific standards for food traceability have been mandated internationally; by law in the European Union (EU), Japan, and more recently the United States; and also by private firms and associations. There is significant attention on traceability systems in the context of monitoring in the food industry. Although this has focused increasingly on food safety, agro-food and non-food sectors have also instituted traceability requirements for product identification, differentiation, and historical monitoring. This paper is focused on one significant factor of traceability systems - the application of design of experiments to optimize barcodes for food and agricultural products.