Food Quality and Design, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Information Technology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2020 May 15;15(5):e0233376. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233376. eCollection 2020.
The poultry meat supply chain is complex and therefore vulnerable to many potential contaminations that may occur. To ensure a safe product for the consumer, an efficient traceability system is required that enables a quick and efficient identification of the potential sources of contamination and proper implementation of mitigation actions. In this study, we explored the use of graph theory to construct a food supply chain network for the broiler meat supply chain in the Netherlands and tested it as a traceability system. To build the graph, we first identified the main actors in the supply chain such as broiler breeder farms, broiler farms, slaughterhouses, processors, and retailers. The capacity data of each supply chain actor, represented by its production or trade volumes, were gathered from various sources. The trade relationships between the supply chain actors were collected and the missing relationships were estimated using the gravity model. Once the network was modeled, we computed degree centrality and betweenness centrality to identify critical nodes in the network. In addition, we computed trade density to get insight into the complexity of sub-networks. We identified the critical nodes at each stage of the Dutch broiler meat supply chain and verified our results with a domain expert of the Dutch poultry industry and literature. The results showed that processors with own slaughtering facility were the most critical points in the broiler meat supply chain.
禽类肉供应链复杂，因此容易受到许多潜在污染的影响。为了确保消费者的安全产品，需要建立一个高效的可追溯系统，以便快速有效地识别潜在的污染来源，并采取适当的缓解措施。在本研究中，我们探讨了使用图论来构建荷兰肉鸡肉类供应链的食品供应链网络，并将其用作可追溯系统进行测试。为了构建该图，我们首先确定了供应链中的主要参与者，如肉鸡饲养场、肉鸡养殖场、屠宰场、加工商和零售商。通过各种来源收集了每个供应链参与者的产能数据，这些数据由其产量或贸易量表示。收集了供应链参与者之间的贸易关系，并使用引力模型估计了缺失的关系。一旦对网络进行建模，我们就计算了度中心性和中间中心性，以识别网络中的关键节点。此外，我们还计算了贸易密度，以深入了解子网络的复杂性。我们确定了荷兰肉鸡肉类供应链各阶段的关键节点，并通过与荷兰家禽行业的领域专家和文献进行验证。结果表明，拥有自己屠宰设施的加工商是肉鸡肉类供应链中最关键的环节。
