Differences between local and global food supply chains

ألمانية. Food moves systematically from the producer to the consumer through different intermediaries, encountering issues such as biological and chemical contamination, and food fraud along the way. These issues vary in magnitude and frequency depending on the nature of the food supply chain, being local food supply chains perceived as performing better than global food supply chains. Hence, a review was conducted within the FoodSafeR project providing an overview of determinants in both, local and global food supply chains. An analysis was conducted using a drivers' approach to examine the drivers contributing to the emergence of food safety risk. This included a qualitative review of scientific and grey literature focussing on eight determinants: food security, food safety, technology, environmental protection, economic growth, sustainability, traceability, and data management. The goal was to identify distinctions between local and global food chains. Performance of each determinant was qualitatively assessed based on comprehensive information found in the literature, revealing that products in local food chains were perceived more sustainable and environmentally friendlier than products in global food chains. In contrast, global food supply chains were considered to provide greater food security, enhanced safety measures, adoption of advanced technology, significant contributions to economic growth, higher levels of traceability, and integration of more sophisticated data management systems throughout their supply chain compared to local food supply chains. The evidence suggests that local food supply chains encounter greater challenges, mainly regarding traceability and data management, than global food supply chains. Therefore, further research on the needs of local food supply chains could be pivotal to provide evidence-based support in optimising their supply chain processes e.g. via harmonised data structures or software systems tailored to the needs of local food supply chains.