1
Introduction
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, called severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Huang et al., 2020). Wuhan (the capital
of Hubei province) was the epicenter, where the first case was reported in December,
2019. It was spread to other parts of China and then to the rest of the world at an
escalating rate. By March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) officially
announced COVID-19 outbreak as a global pandemic (Cucinotta & Vanelli, 2020). The
major mode of transmission of this virus is thought to be person-to-person via the
tiny droplets from the infected person during breathing, sneezing or coughing. These
droplets landing on food surfaces, food packages or objects like door knobs, elevator
switches etc. is believed to remain on these surfaces for some time, depending upon
the temperature and the nature of the surfaces. These viruses can be transmitted to
humans by touching these surfaces and then touching the nose, the eyes or the mouth
(Mahmoud, 2020). Therefore, it is strongly recommended to wash or to disinfect one’s
hand regularly and not to touch the nose, the eyes and the mouth without hand washing
during worktime (NHM, 2020).
Researchers are now working hard to understand the epidemiology and biology of SARS-CoV-2
for the vaccine development and some success news about the vaccine seems to be in
near future: Even after the start of the vaccination, it may take years for its availability
for the world. During the early stages of pandemic, as no solid medical interventions
were successful, resulting a threaten to human lives (Anwar et al., 2020), different
drugs were studied for their possibilities, including heparin (Hippensteel et al.,
2020) and remdesivir (Beigel et al., 2020). So, the WHO has introduced non-pharmaceutical
measures to minimize its spread, including the avoidance of social gathering and outdoor
activities, lockdown and travel restriction, and the use of personal protective gears
(Nicola et al., 2020; WHO, 2020). Such interventions were found highly successful
in China, South Korea, and Singapore within a short period of time, which made other
countries to follow the same methods at the maximum possible level (Shahidi, 2020).
However, most of the countries have been struggling to curb the spread of this virus
from several months with a little success.
Medicals, foods, and groceries are allowed their services, considering them as essentials
during a lockdown period. But, the fear of the viral infection and the movement restriction
highly affected food-related activities, including pre-harvest agriculture, post-harvest
processing, and distribution. The panic of food shortage resulted in the stockpiling
of foods, which caused the temporary stock-out in the market. A survey in the USA
showed that grocery shopping was their highest priority (>90%) during the COVID-19
lockdown (Fig. 1
), indicating food was the most prioritized thing after medication. It is worth to
mention some statements about the importance of food during the COVID-19 pandemic:
“Without food, there can be no exit from the pandemic.”- Torero, M., The chief economist
of FAO (Torero, 2020);
“We need to act now to stop this health crisis transforming into food crisis.”- Gilbert
F. Houngbo, President of IFAD (IFAD, 2020);
“Policy makers around the world need to be careful not to repeat the mistakes made
during the 2007-08 food crisis.” (FAO, 2020b);
Figure 1
Activities that people willing to do during lockdown (abcNEWS, 2020).
Figure 1
The WHO, FAO, CDC and European food safety authority have ruled out the transmission
of coronavirus through food and packaging, possibly due to the virus being lower heat
stable (≤70 oC) and unstable in outside environments (Mahmoud, 2020). However, the
origin of this outbreak being from the Wuhan wet-market and an outbreak from the Xinfadi
wet-market in Beijing have raised the question that if foods, especially meat products
can be a carrier (MailOnline, 2020). Two more outbreaks were reported – meat processing
plant in Germany (Arens, 2020) and seafood processing plants in China (Tencentnews,
2020). Moreover, the detection of this virus on the packages and the interior wall
of the containers, carrying frozen shrimp (NetEase, 2020) and the positive virus test
in frozen chicken wings (Pei, 2020) indicated that the virus can survive longer in
cold conditions. These consequences are threats to the people working in food processing
plants, resulting in a possible disruption of their work. The limit in outdoor activities
plus restriction in transport and travel also causes the shortage of labor and input
supplies, which affects activities in the food supply chain, viz. harvesting, processing,
and distributing, with a possibility of a food crisis. The ready-to-harvest fresh
products cannot reach to the market destinations, causing the spoilage in the farms,
which results in temporary short-supply and long-term food shortage. Therefore, proper
measures need to be taken for smooth running of food supply chains, using various
technologies to overcome these consequences. This paper was designed to understand
the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on food supply chains (FSC) and discuss the novel
technologies applicable in food processing arena to assure its smooth running during
such pandemic.
2
Food Supply Chain (FSC)
A food supply chain (FSC) refers to all the processes that describe how foods from
farms end up on our tables, including farming, processing, distributing, retailing,
and consuming (Fig. 2
A) (Siche, 2020). The FSC can be divided into two parts, namely the supply and the
demand: The supply side involves farming, harvesting, processing, and distribution,
which need a time-bound action to achieve optimum quality foods, whereas the demand
side includes customers, whose economy as well as the abiotic and biotic conditions,
such as drought, flood, ecological disturbances, and the COVID-19 like pandemic are
the influencing factors.
Figure 2
(A) Activities in a simple food supply chain (FSC); (B) Various components and sub-components
in a food supply chain network
Figure 2
A study on the effect of the COVID-19 on food supply chain was conducted by using
the flexibility of a model fresh produce supply chain (onion), based on the real option
theory and described the food supply chain resilience in terms of its flexibility
(Chenarides et al., 2020). It was found that the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)
were more resilient than fresh produces during COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, they
found that the US food supply chain experienced critical weaknesses during COVID-19
pandemic with the lack of resilience in the supply chain, which indicated the lack
of flexibility in supply chain management, rather than a market failure. Therefore,
the switching option and switching cost were the paramount parameters, which might
appear negative in the absence of switching option (Chenarides et al., 2020). Similarly,
Hobbs (2020) assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food supply chain and
its resilience on the disturbance in transportation, and labor shortage as well as
the shocks on demand-side, including consumer panic purchase behavior, and the changes
in food consumption patterns from the food serving installments to home-prepared foods.
The FSC can be explained as a complex network of various components, which are dependent
on different sub-components (Transportation, labor and inputs) as shown in a network
diagram (Fig. 2B). The following section deals with the impact of COVID-19 pandemic
on these sub-components.
2.1
Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Transportation
Transportation is one of the issues that makes the FSC moves forward, which links
all the components. Various forms of transportation are available, including bulk
sea freight, rail transport, marine containers, truck transport, and home delivery
service. The staples use bulk sea freight, rail transport, heavy containers and trucking,
whereas perishable products rely on refrigerated containers or air freight for longer
distance and refrigerated trucks for shorter distance. Home delivery service is for
local level short distance transport (Gray, 2020).
The COVID-19 pandemic has abruptly impacted transportation because of the lockdown,
which include restricted travel and transportation. The sea freight was found available
for food sector due to the limited demand for other sectors, as evident from the lowest
decrease in the Baltic Exchange Dry Index in May 2020 (The peak time of global lockdown).
Rail transport is less labor-intensive and the reduction in non-food transports creates
more availability for food during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the quarantine requirement
of the marine containers for 14 days at the port during the COVID-19 pandemic may
cause a container shortage. The use of truck transport is in a relatively good position
to quickly respond to the COVID-19 related disruptions in the food supply chains as
the transportation of other goods are slowed down during this period (Gray, 2020).
But, the truck drivers in Canada faced the lack of enough access to toilets because
of the shutdown or reduction in opening hours of roadside restaurants (CBC, 2020).
Additionally, the COVID-19 lockdown made restaurants and bars stop their table service,
which escalated pickup and home delivery services (Gray, 2020). The authors have experienced
and made use of more online food delivery systems during COVID-19 pandemic in China.
The damage caused by the restriction in transportation is mainly due to the lack of
transfer of ready-to-sell goods to their destinations. During the initial 21 days
of lockdown in India, the dumped products include six tractors of grapes, and tomatoes
and 1500 litres of milk (Nandi & Swamikannu, 2020). Milk dumping was reported also
in the USA (Forstadt, 2020) and Nepal (NepaliSansar, 2020). Such disturbance was also
seen in Bangladesh (Roy, 2020), resulting in the down-price of fish products (Zabir
et al., 2020), daily unsold milk amounted to 27,000 tons (Bashar & Atik, 2020) and
chicken and eggs sales decreased to 75% (Rajalakshmi, 2020). These are few examples
only; the amounts not reported are expected to be much higher.
2.2
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Labor Availability
Farming and food processing are labor-intensive; a huge number of labor forces are
required to run them, which is fulfilled by migrant workers. For example, the USA
and Canada depends on Mexican workers for their agriculture industries, covering one-third
of such jobs. More than 60,000 Mexican seasonal workers enter to Canada for agro-industries.
The cross-border restriction of Mexican labors to the USA and Canada affected the
farming and processing industries (Richards & Rickard, 2020). Labor shortage was also
seen in India (Nandi & Swamikannu, 2020), Bangladesh (Zabir et al., 2020), and China
(Zhang, 2020) due to travel restriction. Such consequence in India was predicted to
affect the upcoming spring crops like corn, sunflower, canola, vegetables (Singh,
2020), and fish farming (FAO, 2020a), with an uncertainty of the future supply of
these crops.
2.3
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Inputs Supply
Agricultural inputs include seeds, fertilizer, and agro-chemicals, vaccines, medicines,
and cleaning chemicals. Fish farming requires fishing gear, fish feeds, and medicines.
For food processing industries, other ingredients, packaging materials, fuel, cleaning
materials, and additives are vital inputs. During COVID-19 pandemic, transportation
restriction, closure of industries, and boarder closures all affected input supplies
(Aday & Aday, 2020). Moreover, some of these materials are categorized in non-essential
under the lockdown protocol.
3
Technological Intervention to reduce the Impact of COVID-19 on the FSC
Foods are the second most prioritized things after medication during the COVID-19
pandemic. Therefore, food availability and accessibility are the major issues raised
due to the restriction protocols imposed (de Paulo Farias & dos Santos Gomes, 2020).
This section discusses in detail about food processing by the novel and smart technologies
to avoid human-to-human and human-to-food contacts at the maximum possible levels.
Our aim is to replace human effort by these smart technologies so that the tasks are
accomplished with minimal human contact. Below is the compilation of applicable technologies
available so far in food processing.
3.1
Smart Packaging Technology
Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and Active packaging (AP) have been widely used
to increase the storage life of fresh foods (Qiu et al., 2019). During COVID-19 pandemic,
packaging is more important for making food safe to use and for keeping it fresh for
longer transportation delays caused by lockdown. MAP technology consists of modifying
the gas composition inside a package to extend the shelf-life through limited metabolic,
microbial, and enzymatic activities (Rennie & Sunjka, 2017). The gas composition inside
the package is modified and maintained by introducing defined composite gas (Badillo
& Segura-Ponce, 2020). In some instances, the respiratory rate of the fresh products
inside the MAP is so high that the permeability of the material is insufficient to
transport CO2 and O2, causing an anaerobic environment for anaerobic spoilage (Larsen
& Liland, 2013). Perforated packaging was designed for such consequences with adequate
numbers and size (Kartal et al., 2012; Ozdemir et al., 2005). The use of MAP to extend
the shelf life of different products with storage temperature and gas composition
are listed in Table 1
.
Table 1
Use of MAP in various food products to extend the shelf-life.
Table 1
Food products
Shelf-life, days
Temperature (oC)/Gas Composition
References
Sliced cooked ham
44
7 oC/%N2: %CO2 = 45:55 to 80:20
(Raimondi et al., 2019)
Fresh fig
15
5 oC with irradiation/5% O2, 10% CO2, 85% N2
(Waghmare & Annapure, 2018)
Fresh hake fillet
3/6
1 to 7 oC/N2:CO2 = 50:50
(Antunes-Rohling et al., 2019)
Strawberry
10
4 oC/2.5% O2 + 10% CO2
(Zhang et al., 2006)
Blueberry
35
5 oC/40-100% O2 ventilated
(Zheng et al., 2008)
Jackfruit cuts
35
6 oC/Flush with 3 kPa O2 + 5 kPa CO2
(Saxena et al., 2008)
Broccoli
35
3, 4, 13 oC/%O2:%CO2 = 3:8, 5:5 and 5:10 (balance with N2)
(Tano et al., 2007)
Green asparagus
20
2 oC/Flush with 10 kPa O2 + 5 kPa CO2
(An et al., 2006)
Fresh pork
8
4 oC/5-55% O2 and 20% CO2 (balance with N2)
(Zhang & Shrestha, 2005)
Buffalo meat
15
4 oC/80% O2 + 20% CO2
(Sekar et al., 2006)
Beef muscle
15
4 oC/0-80% O2 + 20% CO2 (balance with N2)
(Zakrys et al., 2008)
Salmon fillet
14
4 oC/60% CO2 + 40% N2
(Pettersen et al., 2011)
Scallops
21
6 and 20 oC/10% O2 + 30-75% CO2 (balance with N2)
(Simpson et al., 2007)
Active MAP is a one-step forward approach to keep the products inside the packaging
sound, safe, and wholesome, where an inclusion of an active compound helps the absorption
or release of substances to prolong the product shelf-life (Yildirim et al., 2018).
Table 2
lists the examples of active MAP with storage temperature, gas composition and active
compounds used.
Table 2
Active MAP in various food products to extend shelf-life.
Table 2
Products
Shelf-life, days
Temp
Gas composition/Active compound
References
Chicken breast
15
4 oC
30% CO2 + 70% N2/Allyl isothiocyanate
(Shin et al., 2010)
Lamb meat
14
4 oC
%CO2: %N2 = 60:40 and 80:20/Thyme or oregano essential oils
(Karabagias et al., 2011)
Sea bream
28
4 oC
40% CO2, 30% O2, and 30% N2/Oregano essential oil
(Goulas & Kontominas, 2007)
Ready-to-eat iceberg lettuce
5
4 oC
Air at 95% RH/Eugenol, carvacrol, and trans-anethole
(Wieczyńska & Cavoski, 2018)
Pre-baked buns
13
RT
Normal air/Ethicap (an ethanol emitter)
(Franke et al., 2002)
Bakery products
28
25 oC
%CO2:%N2 = 30:70 and 0:100/Oxygen absorber
(Guynot et al., 2003)
Egg-based dessert
20
RT
60% CO2 + 40% N2 Oxygen absorber
(Suppakul et al., 2016)
Ready-to-eat chicken breast
60
4 oC
High-pressure processing/Coriander essential oil
(Stratakos et al., 2015)
Ready-to-eat poultry
10
8 oC
Normal air/ZnO nanoparticles
(Akbar & Anal, 2014)
Food products
Shelf-life, days
Temperature (oC)/Gas Composition
References
Sliced cooked ham
44
7 oC/%N2: %CO2 = 45:55 to 80:20
(Raimondi et al., 2019)
Fresh fig
15
5 oC with irradiation/5% O2, 10% CO2, 85% N2
(Waghmare & Annapure, 2018)
Fresh hake fillet
3/6
1 to 7 oC/N2:CO2 = 50:50
(Antunes-Rohling et al., 2019)
Strawberry
10
4 oC/2.5% O2 + 10% CO2
(Zhang et al., 2006)
Blueberry
35
5 oC/40-100% O2 ventilated
(Zheng et al., 2008)
Jackfruit cuts
35
6 oC/Flush with 3 kPa O2 + 5 kPa CO2
(Saxena et al., 2008)
Broccoli
35
3, 4, 13 oC/%O2:%CO2 = 3:8, 5:5 and 5:10 (balance with N2)
(Tano et al., 2007)
Green asparagus
20
2 oC/Flush with 10 kPa O2 + 5 kPa CO2
(An et al., 2006)
Fresh pork
8
4 oC/5-55% O2 and 20% CO2 (balance with N2)
(Zhang & Shrestha, 2005)
Buffalo meat
15
4 oC/80% O2 + 20% CO2
(Sekar et al., 2006)
Beef muscle
15
4 oC/0-80% O2 + 20% CO2 (balance with N2)
(Zakrys et al., 2008)
Salmon fillet
14
4 oC/60% CO2 + 40% N2
(Pettersen et al., 2011)
Scallops
21
6 and 20 oC/10% O2 + 30-75% CO2 (balance with N2)
(Simpson et al., 2007)
Products
Shelf-life, days
Temp
Gas composition/Active compound
References
Chicken breast
15
4 oC
30% CO2 + 70% N2/Allyl isothiocyanate
(Shin et al., 2010)
Lamb meat
14
4 oC
%CO2: %N2 = 60:40 and 80:20/Thyme or oregano essential oils
(Karabagias et al., 2011)
Sea bream
28
4 oC
40% CO2, 30% O2, and 30% N2/Oregano essential oil
(Goulas & Kontominas, 2007)
Ready-to-eat iceberg lettuce
5
4 oC
Air at 95% RH/Eugenol, carvacrol, and trans-anethole
(Wieczyńska & Cavoski, 2018)
Pre-baked buns
13
RT
Normal air/Ethicap (an ethanol emitter)
(Franke et al., 2002)
Bakery products
28
25 oC
%CO2:%N2 = 30:70 and 0:100/Oxygen absorber
(Guynot et al., 2003)
Egg-based dessert
20
RT
60% CO2 + 40% N2 Oxygen absorber
(Suppakul et al., 2016)
Ready-to-eat chicken breast
60
4 oC
High-pressure processing/Coriander essential oil
(Stratakos et al., 2015)
Ready-to-eat poultry
10
8 oC
Normal air/ZnO nanoparticles
(Akbar & Anal, 2014)
The most advancement in MAP is the incorporation of intelligent technology, where
the use of indicators detects the chemical changes due to the microbial growth. These
indicators include smart labels, sensors, radiofrequency identification tags, time-temperature
integrator (TTI), security tags etc. (Zhang et al., 2015). For example, polyaniline
film was used to monitor the freshness of fish (Kuswandi et al., 2012), whereas TTIs
were used to indicate the safety and quality of ground beef and spiced cooked chicken
(Ellouze & Augustin, 2010), fresh foods (Riva et al., 2001), “golden drop” (a Thai
dessert) (Nopwinyuwong et al., 2010), and mushroom (Bobelyn et al., 2006). Additionally,
the development of packaging materials with anti-SARS-CoV-2 properties, as hypothesized
with copper, zinc and silver nanoparticles containing polymers (Sportelli et al.,
2020), would be an interesting area of development because they were reported to act
against hepatitis A virus and human norovirus (Randazzo et al., 2018).
3.2
Smart Freezing and Thawing Technology
Freezing preservation majorly involves freezing, frozen storage, and thawing, to retain
the fresh-like properties of foods. The conventional freezing is carried out by air-blast-,
immersion-, fluidized bed-, and cryogenic-freezing, whereas the novel freezing uses
ultrasound, ultra-high pressure, pulsed electric field, ultra-low temperature, high-voltage
electrostatic field, and radio-frequency (Wu et al., 2017). The monitoring and detection
of freezing and other food processing activities can be done by smart technologies
for its mechanization and automation. They include electronic nose, electronic tongue,
nuclear magnetic resonance, near infrared spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, computer
vision, and artificial intelligence (Xu et al., 2017), which are discussed in the
following section.
3.3
Smart Monitoring Technology
The use of smart technologies for processing monitoring, without direct involvement
of human resources is a need for the COVID-19 pandemic period. The environmental factors
including temperature, relative humidity, CO2, ethylene, and gas composition in the
package are required. Temperature monitoring is given the utmost importance because
quality degradation majorly depends on temperature exposure, storage time, gas constant,
and activation energy (Labuza et al., 2003). Relative humidity is another parameter,
which determines the freshness of food products; a system was tested to measure it
in a package by using an autofocus sensor, where data was transmitted through radio
transmission (Hübert & Lang, 2012).
For the monitoring of O2 and CO2 concentration inside a package, an intelligent monitoring
and control system was developed with the sensors, linked with a digital converter
analog for data acquisition, where the control was done by a single chip microcomputer
using fuzzy logic (Liu et al., 2005). Similarly, Borchert et al. (2013) developed
a color-based CO2 sensor using phosphorescent Platinum-porphyrin dye, linked to the
Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) system.
A real-time freshness monitoring was done by ethylene concentration through the use
of tin oxide (SiO2) gas sensors (Giberti et al., 2004), and molybdenum (Mo) chromophores
color sensor (Lang & Hubert, 2012). Similarly, hydrogen sulfide produced by lactic
acid bacteria, Clostridium and other pathogens in meat (Eeckhaut et al., 2012; Kalinowski
& Tompkin, 1999) and fish (Serio et al., 2014) was detected through a myoglobin- (Smolander
et al., 2002) or a copper acetate-based (Koskela et al., 2015) sensors. Moreover,
total volatile basic-nitrogen from animal protein breakdown, can be detected using
bromocresol green based pH sensors (Pacquit et al., 2006) and polyaniline film-based
sensor (Kuswandi et al., 2012).
3.4
Smart Detection System
The inspection of quality throughout the food processing to avoid deviation and to
take corrective action against the deviation has been practiced using various means,
including human sensory organs and advanced smart technologies. This section deals
with the online smart detection technologies, which minimize the direct human involvement
for the smooth running of food processing during COVID-19 pandemic.
3.4.1
Smart Odor Detection - Electronic Nose (E-nose)
An E-nose is a simulated human nose for sensing odors, which is based on bionic olfaction
to detect the complex odors through the array of gas sensors, including metal-oxide
semiconductor, quartz-crystal microbalance, and surface-acoustic waves (Wilson, 2012).
An E-nose was successfully applied for food spoilage detection (Casalinuovo et al.,
2006), meat and fish freshness assessment (Hasan et al., 2012), pineapple shelf-life
estimation (Torri et al., 2010), and green tea grading (Yu et al., 2008). Similarly,
the adulteration of pork in mutton mince (Tian et al., 2013), differentiation of rice
varieties (Zheng et al., 2009), and discrimination of fish species (Güney & Atasoy,
2015) were also accomplished by E-nose. The details of its principles, methods, applications,
and recent advances in its uses in food sectors were recently reviewed by many researchers
(Mohd Ali et al., 2020; Shi et al., 2018; Tan & Xu, 2020). Since E-nose is relatively
faster, and less destructive, it can be used for real-time odor detection without
direct human involvement.
3.4.2
Smart Taste Detection – Electronic Tongue (E-tongue)
An E-tongue is a simulation of the human tongue for rapid, and unbiased detection
of five basic tastes via taste sensors, including potentiometric sensors, voltametric
sensors, and bioelectric sensors (Jiang et al., 2018). Potentiometric E-tongue has
been used for oil classification from a single olive cultivar (Dias et al., 2014),
honey differentiation (Escriche et al., 2012), beer and wine discrimination (Nery
& Kubota, 2016), and sugar quantification in solution (Arca et al., 2019). Similarly,
voltametric E-tongue was used to detect the adulteration of sunflower oil in argan
oil (Bougrini et al., 2014), to discriminate the honey from different flowers (Tiwari
et al., 2013), and to analyze spring water (Carbó et al., 2017). Last but not least,
bioelectric E-tongue was employed to analyze the biocide residues (Malvano et al.,
2017) and toxins (Solanki et al., 2010; Srivastava et al., 2014) in foods. Bioelectric
sensors were also employed to detect the growth of bacteria, especially food pathogens,
such as E. coli O157:H7 (Lin et al., 2019), Salmonella Typhimurium (Sheikhzadeh et
al., 2016), Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus (Reich et al., 2017). Such an
intelligent determination technique without direct involvement of human makes it an
ideal technique suitable during the COVID-19 pandemic. The details of its principles
and applications in food sectors for various purposes can be viewed in recent reviews
(Jiang et al., 2018; Tan & Xu, 2020).
3.4.3
Smart Moisture Detection - LF NMR and MRI Systems
The determination of moisture and water activity in a food is vital for its safe keeping.
The conventional methods are time-consuming, and destructive, whereas low field nuclear
magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are nuclear magnetism
based powerful tools for rapid and descriptive analysis without requiring sample destruction
(Kirtil & Oztop, 2016). A real-time monitoring of moisture content and its distribution
were reported during the drying of abalone (Song et al., 2017), corn (Lv et al., 2018),
vegetables (Lv et al., 2017), and shitake mushroom (Cheng, Li, et al., 2020; Zhao
et al., 2019). Moreover, we have recently reported the intelligent detection of the
safe level of water activity (0.6) through the use of LF-NMR during the drying of
vegetables and fruits (Chitrakar et al., 2019; Chitrakar et al., 2020). These magnetic
resonance technologies have been deployed to monitor other processes, including pre-brining
and freezing of shrimps (Gudjónsdóttir et al., 2011), the fermentation process (Kreyenschulte
et al., 2015; Ramanjooloo et al., 2009), and to determine the internal quality of
apples (Chayaprasert & Stroshine, 2005), the blackheart in pomegranates (Zhang & McCarthy,
2012), the bruising in fruits and vegetables (Du et al., 2020), moisture status and
migration during refrigerated storage of beef (Cheng, Wang, et al., 2020), multiple
freeze-thaw cycles in beef (Cheng et al., 2018), total lipids and bound lipids in
oats (Li et al., 2020), and oil species identification (Hou et al., 2019). The details
of its principles and applications can be viewed from recent reviews (Ezeanaka et
al., 2019; Kirtil & Oztop, 2016).
3.4.4
Smart Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy (NIRS)
The NIRS can be used for the determination of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water
etc. in food without requiring sample preparation and sample destruction. Kawamura
et al. (2007) developed a model using NIRS for online detection of lactose, fat, protein,
urea nitrogen, and somatic cells in milk. Models were also developed for the determination
of soluble solids in citrus fruits (Wang & Xie, 2014) and watermelon (Jie et al.,
2014), pigment content in cream (Zhang et al., 2020), botanical origin of honey (Zhao
et al., 2011), and food safety hazards (Fu & Ying, 2016). Moreover, Beghi et al. (2014)
estimated the storage life of cold-stored apples. However, the use of NIRS is still
at the laboratory scale and its industrial scale-up needs to be developed for its
online detection (Wang et al., 2018). The details of its principles, and applications
along with its limitations on online applications were already reviewed (Porep et
al., 2015).
3.4.5
Smart Hyperspectral Imaging System (HIS) Technology
An HIS technology is the integration among spectroscopy, chemometrics, and imaging
technologies, giving special data and signals simultaneously (Ma et al., 2019). It
gives reliable and accurate information about the structure, composition, physicochemical-,
and sensory-properties at a faster rate without requiring sample preparation and direct
human involvement. Moreover, it is suitable for heterogenous materials as well. The
use of an HSI technology in fruits and vegetables, legumes and cereals, meat, dairy
and eggs has been reported (Siche et al., 2016) for the evaluation of biological contaminants
in food, including viable microorganisms and their toxins and insect infestation and
parasitic contaminations (Vejarano et al., 2017). Moreover, physicochemical properties
determination, real-time process monitoring, freshness and defect detection (Ma et
al., 2019) as well as Aflatoxins classification (Xing et al., 2019) were also reported
by using HSI technology. In addition, researchers have shown it to be a promising
real-time technology for online detection of quality and safety of foods (Baiano,
2017; Khan et al., 2020).
3.4.6
Smart Computer Vision Technology
Computer vision is a rapid and non-destructive technology, giving consistent and accurate
results, which processes the images received from an image acquisition system (Wang
and Sun, 2002). It was applied for real-time monitoring during drying of food products
(Aghbashlo et al., 2014). The combination of this technology with e-nose and e-tongue
was found to succeed the real-time monitoring of odor and taste, respectively (Ghasemi-Varnamkhasti
et al., 2010). It can evaluate the differences between samples or the different regions
within a sample with the help of algorithms and a computer system. Its wide applications
has already been tested in different foods for various purposes; the details of their
uses in these sectors were reviewed by (Ma et al., 2016) and (Wu & Sun, 2013).
3.4.7
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of many novel smart technologies, which can replace
human effort for object recognition with the help of computer vision technology (Cohen
& Feigenbaum, 1982). AI uses numerous data points available on the web by the use
of two major systems, called Neural Networks (NN), and Deep Learning to attain an
outstanding performance (Russell & Norvig, 2020) through the modern computational
power, called Graphics Processing Units, which makes it possible for NN to imitate
the human brain to solve the complex tasks (Macedonia, 2003).
The NN based electronic nose system was successfully employed to discriminate the
aroma of honey (Benedetti et al., 2004) and tea (Borah et al., 2008), with classification
accuracy of more than 90%. The AI was used for grading of coffee beans (de Oliveira
et al., 2016) and eggs (Omid et al., 2013), with respective accuracy of 100% and 95.4%.
The artificial NN plus computer vision was employed for color- and size-classification
of beans, with the performance accuracy of 90.6% (Kılıç et al., 2007). Therefore,
it can be concluded that AI techniques can be employed in various food processing
sectors; the scope of which is expected to increase in post-COVID period (Kakani et
al., 2020) to address the customer expectation to have minimal human-to-human and
human-to-food contact during food processing.
3.5
Potential Technologies for Virus Decontamination
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the customers feel a panic and threat of virus contamination
in the purchased foods and packaging, which can be largely eliminated through the
use of various technologies, such as cold plasma, UV and mild heat treatment (Darnell
et al., 2004; Filipić et al., 2020). Cold plasma treatment was found effective against
viruses on food surfaces, such as fresh meat (Bae et al., 2015), lettuce (Aboubakr
et al., 2020; Min et al., 2016), and blueberries (Lacombe et al., 2017). Virus inactivation
and pathogen destruction (E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes)
was reported for cold plasma (Roh et al., 2020) as well as UV treatment (E. coli,
Klebsiella pneumonia, and Candida albicans) (Heßling et al., 2020). Additionally,
a mild-heat treatment (65 oC for 4 min) and UV-C (254 nm) treatment (15 min at pH
>12 or <3, 25 or 37 oC) can be another alternative (Darnell et al., 2004). An advanced
oxidation process, where a combination of UV-C along with ozone, H2O2, Cu etc. at
very lower concentrations than that would be effective if used individually, giving
nearly 600% virucidal effect was also reported (Quintel et al., 2019).
The use of nano-based antimicrobial particles in facemask, gloves, and aprons can
be another promising technology. Copper and silver nanoparticles, which show antiviral
properties against influenza virus, which can be incorporated in cotton (Kanovsky,
2016), and polyesters (Clement, 2008)) for such purposes. TiO2- or Ag-nanoparticle
based disinfectants to clean buildings (StatNano, 2020) and food processing surface
coating by anti-SARS-CoV-2 nanoparticles (study has started from September 2020 and
will finish by April 30, 2021) (Brockgreitens, 2020) were recently reported. The use
of nanoparticles in packaging materials to get the antiviral properties has been already
discussed elsewhere in this manuscript. However, the nanomaterials showing possible
side effects on human health (skin irritation, allergy or toxicity) and possible environmental
contamination with nanomaterials are to be considered for their large-scale and long-term
use.
4
Challenges and Limitations
During a pandemic like COVID-19, the demand of technological innovation is higher
than ever. However, the technological interventions may face many challenges and limitations.
The major challenges include the economic and feasibility challenges such as the lack
of infrastructure, technical knowhow, and adaptational capability. Moreover, the novel
coronavirus is new to the world and scientific studies are still young to know about
this virus. Though it was said that food was unlikely to be a medium to transmit the
virus, new cases are popping-up, including the case of 1553 COVID-19 positive workers
in Tönnies Meat Processing Company, Germany (Arens, 2020) as well as the case of a
sea-food processing workers in Dalian Kaiyang Seafood Company, China (Tencentnews,
2020). Moreover, an outbreak in the Beijing Xinfadi Wet Market infecting 329 people
(the outbreak was suspected from the salmon-cutting chopping board) (MailOnline, 2020)
and the recent finding of the virus on the interior wall of the vehicle container
and outside of the packaging of frozen shrimp in China (NetEase, 2020), have forced
us to think about the technological preparedness to use these smart technologies,
which avoid human-to-human and human-to-food contact during food processing. The presence
of the virus on the packaging and the container wall showed that the virus can survive
on a surface and can last for longer at a lower temperature. Previous coronavirus,
such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV were found to remain infectious for two years at -20oC
(BfR, Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung 2020). However, SARS-CoV-2 was reported to
remain viable on stainless-steel and plastic surfaces for 2 and 3 days, respectively
and on copper and carboard surfaces for 4 and 24, respectively at 21 oC and 40% RH
(van Doremalen et al., 2020). It is also suggested that the chances of SARS-CoV-2
virus transmission through the foods from infected animals or cross-contamination
cannot be overruled (Oakenfull & Wilson, 2020). Therefore, the technological interventions
to guarantee the avoidance of human contacts during food processing, packaging, storage,
and transportation are the most seeking innovations at this time of crisis.
5
Concluding Remarks – about vaccine information?
COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease; the disease is transmitted from person to
person via droplets or by touching surfaces, where the virus landed and then entered
our body through our nose, mouth and/or eye. Regarding vaccine study, the third phase
trials were successfully conducted in the diversified population from South Africa,
Brazil, and the UK for its efficiency (Folegatti et al., 2020). Till date, vaccination
programs have been in place using vaccines from different companies, including Pfizer,
Moderna (CDC, 2021), Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson (WebMD, 2021), Sinovac, and
Gamaleya (BBC, 2021) with various levels of effectiveness (62-95%) and requiring different
storage temperature (2 to -80 oC). The front-line workers are the most prioritized
for vaccination at the beginning; therefore, the availability of the vaccine to the
whole world population may take years. Therefore, physical means are the means to
curb the spread of this virus and technological preparedness to run the food processing
activities smoothly are most seeking innovation at present. Food being the second
most prioritized issue after medication during the COVID-19 pandemic, agricultural
practices and food processing must be efficient for smooth running of the FSC. The
food sector is the most labor-intensive one and human-to-human contact is inevitable
unless smart technologies are in place. Food processing activities should be mechanized
and automated by the use of novel smart technologies so that the direct human involvements
are the least possible. The technologies mentioned in this paper are the most recent
smart technologies that can be implemented to intervene the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on food processing, which ultimately impact the food supply chain.
Author Contributions
Bimal Chitrakar conducted the literature collection, drafted the manuscript, and compiled
data into tables. Min Zhang suggested the original idea of this work and revised the
technical contents of the manuscript. Bhesh Bhandari did the revision for its technical
contents as well as language correction.
Uncited References
News, 2020.
Uncited reference
Cheng et al., 2020.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest on the contents of this paper.