Quality management, food complexity

European consumers are sophisticated and highly conscious of food quality and safety (Beulens, 2005). Recall announcements can be found in newspapers almost weekly due to problems in operations. Operations management in food supply networks is especially complex because of the variability of primary inputs and the perishability of products. To ensure consistent quality of food products and to prevent food safety problems, it is beneficial to set up early warning and proactive control systems in food supply networks. 

Dotting the landscape of suburban North America, the family restaurant chain lies somewhere between the bistro and the fast food restaurant. Menus are longer, the food preparation is more complex, the kitchen has multi-purpose stations dedicated to types of food and sophisticated systems for communication and tracking. By streamlining the logistics of managing the overall process and improving the duty cycle of kitchen equipment, kitchen staff and kitchen space, these restaurants are able to efficiently offer the restaurant s most popular items and more rarely ordered novelties. The food quality is consistent, the response time is fair and the price is relatively low. 

NIRS has demonstrated its ability to be integrated in traceability, quality, and labeling programs in the agro-food sector. However, NIRS is not the only sensor needed for management and traceability of complex Agriculture and Forestry farming systems. 

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