Planning and control in fresh food supply chains: A literature review

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the current state of research in the planning and control (P&C) literature in regards to fresh food supply chains (FFSC). Based on the literature review, important research areas are identified and serve as guidelines for defining future research directions.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a structured literature review of articles with the main focus on P&C of fresh food products. The review is based on a range of published works from main journals on supply chain management over the last 10 years. The gaps and challenges in the literature are highlighted and used as a basis for discussion on future research.

Findings
The paper identifies seven major categories in the current research on P&C in FFSCs and proposes six areas for future research directions, namely balance between demand and supply, supply chain P&C, characteristics of FFSCs, decision support tools based on real-time data, hybrid planning and control strategies and lean in the FFSC.

Research limitations/implications
The study is based on a literature study. The proposed findings give an overview over the topics in P&C in FFSC and are useful in defining future research directions in this area.

Practical implications
The paper enhances the focus on P&C in FFSC in practice, and defines important implications for why and how P&C should be practiced from a supply chain perspective.

Original/value
The paper presents an overview of the literature on P&C issues of fresh food products, which has not been conducted before.