Food is one of the most traded goods, and the conflict in Ukraine, one of the European breadbaskets, has triggered a significant additional disruption in the global food supply chains after the COVID-19 impact. The disruption to food output, supply chains, availability, and affordability could have a long-standing impact. As a result, the availability and supply of a wide range of food raw materials and finished food products are under threat, and global markets have seen recent increases in food prices. Furthermore, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has adversely affected food supply chains, with significant effects on production, sourcing, manufacturing, processing, logistics, and significant shifts in demand between nations reliant on imports from Ukraine. This paper aims to analyze the impacts of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on the effectiveness and responsiveness of the global food supply chains. A PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) approach, including grey literature, was deployed to investigate six key areas of the food supply chains that would be impacted most due to the ongoing war. Findings include solutions and strategies to mitigate supply chain impacts such as alternative food raw materials, suppliers and supply chain partners supported by technological innovations to ensure food safety and quality in warlike situations.

Food loss and waste are major issues in the food industry, and they affect all stages of the food supply chain (FSC). Food loss and waste are linked to environmental deterioration, economic loss, and an increase in hunger. Therefore, the food industry requires sustainable consumption and production (SCP) to reduce losses and waste. The circular economy (CE) concept has become a popular strategy for reducing food waste and boosting sustainability. Therefore, with efficient reverse logistics in the FSC, food producers can help achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) like SCP and zero hunger. In literature, minimal research has been available in identifying the CE adoption challenges in FSC. This research identifies 15 critical challenges from the literature and discussion with the panel of experts. The relationship between the challenges has been established through an interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique. The challenges were characterized in cause–effect according to their relational intensity obtained using the grey decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique. Grey's relational theory is applied in DEMATEL to minimize uncertainty and vagueness of the expert judgment. The findings of this study suggest that creating policy from the government, providing incentives, and strictly enforcing environmental regulations are the most critical challenge. Hence, by focusing on the above, the effective adoption of the CE principle is achieved. This result also suggests that by addressing the challenges of CE, corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be performed. This study provides some recommendations for the practitioners to adopt CE towards sustainable development targets.

Food Logistics 4.0 is a term derived from Industry 4.0 focusing on all the aspects of food logistics management based on cyber-physical systems. It states that real-time information and the interconnectivity of things, supplemented with novel technologies will revolutionise and improve the way food logistics is carried out. It has tremendous potential in terms of bringing transparency, swift delivery of food at reduced cost, flexibility, and capability to deliver the right quality product at the right place and at the right time. This paper discusses the vital technologies within Food Logistics 4.0 and the opportunities and challenges in this regard. It focuses primarily on food logistics, including resource planning, warehouse management, transportation management, predictive maintenance, and data security. Internet of Things, Blockchain, Robotics and Automation and artificial intelligence are some of the technologies discussed.

Food Traceability 4.0 refers to the application of fourth industrial revolution (or Industry 4.0) technologies to ensure food authenticity, safety, and high food quality. Growing interest in food traceability has led to the development of a wide range of chemical, biomolecular, isotopic, chromatographic, and spectroscopic methods with varied performance and success rates. This review will give an update on the application of Traceability 4.0 in the fruits and vegetables sector, focusing on relevant Industry 4.0 enablers, especially Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and Big Data. The results show that the Traceability 4.0 has significant potential to improve quality and safety of many fruits and vegetables, enhance transparency, reduce the costs of food recalls, and decrease waste and loss. However, due to their high implementation costs and lack of adaptability to industrial environments, most of these advanced technologies have not yet gone beyond the laboratory scale. Therefore, further research is anticipated to overcome current limitations for large-scale applications.