Chilled or frozen? Decision strategies for sustainable food supply chains

Along the food supply chains (FSC), energy plays a strategic role, being fundamental to guarantee quality and influential in the determination of economic values. Moreover, the same type of product may flow through chains differing in energy requirement, processing equipment and time spent in the chain itself. These differences between the FSCs (short vs. longer product lives and storage times, fast vs. slower transportation, low vs. higher energy contribution) motivated the study, which aims at capturing in an analytical model the relationships between the relevant parameters influencing the problem, thus addressing a possible approach to the chain optimisation. By the modelling approach proposed, jointly looking at economic aspects and energy efforts required to condition and preserve the product quality over time, it is possible to address new considerations for understanding FSCs peculiarities, so as to support decisions and improving the sustainability of the solution adopted.