Food traceability: a tool for managing health risks

While artificial intelligence will certainly gradually change the structure of the economy in almost all, if not all, of its sectors , the need to feed oneself is a constant, and logically should remain so. The food supply chain is a series of contractually-linked stakeholders who offer unprocessed agricultural products or processed foodstuffs to consumers, who are at the very end of the contractual chain. A distinction is made between short and long circuits, depending on the number of intermediaries involved between the initial producer and the final consumer. A circuit is considered short if it does not involve any intermediaries, i.e. direct sales between producer and consumer, or an intermediary. A circuit is therefore considered long if it includes at least two intermediaries between the initial producer and the final consumer. Long circuits generally involve three main phases. Upstream, agricultural production constitutes the first phase, and supplies the food processing industry, which constitutes the second phase. The latter then sells the finished products to the third and final link, the distributors, who are in contact with consumers, the ultimate recipients of agricultural or food products. These agri-food contract chains may also include other stakeholders in the food supply chain, such as transporters or brokers.

The food supply chain can be broken down into different commodity chains, depending on the agricultural or food product, or family of agricultural or food products, under consideration. These include meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, milk and wine. It's also possible to take a finer-grained approach, separating the beef, sheep and goat sectors within the meat meta-sector. In any case, an industry is the representation of an economic universe that differs from the market in three main ways . Firstly, a commodity chain has a vertical structure, with a succession of supplier/customer relationships at different stages of production/processing/distribution. In contrast, a market is a horizontal structure, with suppliers and demanders around a product. Secondly, the economic relationships between stakeholders are not only competitive, but also cooperative (e.g. in terms of quality or productivity), consensual (e.g. on products) and based on solidarity (e.g. in defense of the profession). Thirdly, price is not the only means of coordination between stakeholders....