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Optimal allocation of near-expiry food in a retailer-foodbank supply network with economic and environmental considerations: an aggregator's perspective

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posted on 2023-06-10, 00:33 authored by Jasashwi Mandal, Rony Mitra, Vishal Kumar Gupta, Nachiappan SubramanianNachiappan Subramanian, Yasanur Kayikci, Manoj Kumar Tiwari
Wastage of perishable food products is a severe concern to society and needs to be addressed to ensure food security for all. Moreover, the food waste when sent to landfills, decomposes to produce greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide. The emergence of food banks and aggregators has abated the problem of food wastage to a certain extent. An aggregator, which connects the retailers to the food banks, plays a critical role in ensuring that the food reaches the food banks on time. However, to ensure food security and reduce wastage of food, it is essential that food aggregators remain profitable. The aggregator has to determine the number of heterogeneous vehicles to hire from the market and allocate them their route on a daily basis depending on donations committed by the retailers and also take into account potential environmental impact from the decomposition of food waste and carbon emitted from hired vehicles. Hence, we propose decision support for aggregators, using data from an aggregator based in Turkey, which can help in reducing food wastage by allocating the donated food items from retailers to food banks while maximizing the profitability of the aggregator and minimizing the environmental impact. We have also analyzed how the availability of different types of vehicles can impact the aggregator's profit. Furthermore, the effect of various model parameters such as transportation cost, and percentage of retailers' gain paid to the aggregator on the total profit along with the impact of distances on types of vehicles hired is also analyzed. We have compared two strategies that the aggregator could possibly employ and generate managerial insights.

Funding

Perishable food cold chain logistics in Turkey; G2351; ROYAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING (CHARITY); DVFM1718/1/54

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Journal of Cleaner Production

ISSN

0959-6526

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

318

Page range

1-11

Article number

a128481

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2021-08-06

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2022-07-30

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2021-08-06

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