AUTHOR=Halim-Lim Sarina Abdul , Baharuddin Azan Azuwan , Cherrafi Anass , Ilham Zul , Jamaludin Adi Ainurzaman , David Wahyudi , Sodhi Harsimran Singh 

TITLE=Digital innovations in the post-pandemic era towards safer and sustainable food operations: A mini-review

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Food Science and Technology

VOLUME=Volume 2 - 2022

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/food-science-and-technology/articles/10.3389/frfst.2022.1057652

DOI=10.3389/frfst.2022.1057652

ISSN=2674-1121

ABSTRACT=Though the pandemic has created an imbalance and disrupted the economy in the food industry, it has had a positive impact on speeding the acceptance of the industry towards digital innovations. The shift toward digitalization is leading the food industry to leverage innovations that can serve the dual purpose of safer and sustainable food operations. This review synthesizes the rapidly growing literature on digital technology used as the response to the emergence of food safety and sustainability issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Opportunities to improve 13 food safety management system components and 3 sustainability components including economics, environmental and social were identified. The review determined that blockchain and IoT have the most prominent role in improving food safety, especially the component of traceability and monitoring and inspection. Similarly, blockchain was identified offered the most opportunities in improving sustainability. The review identified that the usage of digital innovations is still in the infancy stage where several components of food safety (quality control, quality improvement and validation) have the potential to be integrated with digital innovations. The result of this review increases the awareness of digitalisation in food operations as a positive response to the pandemic era.