Blockchain Changing the Outlook of the Sustainable Food Supply Chain to Achieve Net Zero?

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 4)

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Author Response

Response sheet - Reviewer 1  

Manuscript Number:  Sustainability- 2072924

Title:  Blockchain changing the outlook of the sustainable food supply chain to achieve net zero?

We sincerely thank the editors and the anonymous referees for their positive and constructive comments on our paper. My co-authors and I have checked the review comments, amended the paper, and prepared this revised submission package. The detailed responses to the review comments and a summary of changes are listed in the individual responses to reviewers. The significant changes in the paper are highlighted in yellow color text. Please check the revised version of our article. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report (Previous Reviewer 3)

Comments 1/2/3 have been responded to positively. However, 2 of the 3 references involved in Comment 4 have not been added. Authors should carefully examine the DOI and add the reference accordingly.

Author Response

Response sheet - Reviewer 2  

Manuscript Number:  Sustainability- 2072924

Title:  Blockchain changing the outlook of the sustainable food supply chain to achieve net zero?

We sincerely thank the editors and the anonymous referees for their positive and constructive comments on our paper. My co-authors and I have checked the review comments, amended the paper, and prepared this revised submission package. The detailed responses to the review comments and a summary of changes are listed in the individual responses to reviewers. The significant changes in the paper are highlighted in yellow color text. Please check the revised version of our article. 

Comment 1 Comments 1/2/3 have been responded to positively. However, 2 of the 3 references involved in Comment 4 have not been added. Authors should carefully examine the DOI and add the reference accordingly.

Reply1 : Thank you very much for your valuable comment. We added the references and highlighted all the references. It is available in Section 5, page number 21-22, line no 404-407, 413-414, 432-433

This is for your ready reference

The study observes that integrating BLCT in FSCs provides greater visibility in SCs, increases transparency, improves food safety, and reduces food waste. In the case of halal FSC and dairy FSC, blockchain has increased transparency and benefited the company by ensuring safety and gaining consumers' trust [98, 99]. It also helps address the customers' concerns about the origin of products, its safety, and quality by linking the information nodes [100]. BLCT enhances the effectiveness and performance of the FSC through information exchange and transparency, thus reducing the lead time through digitized records and automated workflows. Using this technology, one can reduce operational costs and increase efficiency in the FSC. For example, firms can acquire detailed information on the shelf life of food products to manage their inventory and transportation better, improve profits and avoid waste [93]. Thus, implementation of BLCT improves the profitability of both platform and supplier[100] (Yang et al.,2021). By strengthening the immutability, traceability, and transparency within any transaction of FSC, it also increases trust between its members. Our report also shows that blockchain might be used to decrease product waste and increase supply chain sustainability.

The study observes that before implementing blockchain, farmers must first gain a thorough understanding of the technology. Farmers' major concern in many regions of the globe is survival; therefore, they concentrate their efforts on farming and lack competence in advanced technologies. Blockchain technologies also demand a high degree of computation, these resources are limited in developing countries, and implementation is arduous. [Huang et al., 2022] [101] states that adoption of BLCT in supply chain requires standardization, organizational collaboration and willingness to adopt the technology. As a result, there appears to be a divide in digital competency and access to BLCT between the industrialized and developing worlds. Some authors, however, mention a key point that the majority of such programs are in economically developed nations and hence, they do not address the fundamental problems of developing countries. [102] emphasize linking technical, organizational, and external concepts for blockchain adoption. Effective collaboration is required to pique managers' and leaders' interest in adopting digital technologies to increase information and resource sharing, decision-making, and to build a synergy between the supplier and the manufacturer, consequently enhancing performance [103]. [104] conducted an online survey study revealed that though the participants acknowledged the benefits of blockchain, they were divided on the likelihood of adoption.

99 Casino F, Kanakaris V, Dasaklis TK, Moschuris S, Stachtiaris S, Pagoni M, Rachaniotis NP. Blockchain-based food supply chain traceability: a case study in the dairy sector. International Journal of Production Research. 2021 Oct 2;59(19):5758-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2020.1789238

100 Yang L, Zhang J, Shi X. Can blockchain help food supply chains with platform operations during the COVID-19 outbreak?. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications. 2021 Sep 1;49:101093. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.02.009

101 Huang L, Zhen L, Wang J, Zhang X. Blockchain implementation for circular supply chain management: Evaluating critical success factors. Industrial Marketing Management. 2022 Apr 1;102:451-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2021.101093

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)

This is an interesting systematic literature review with 55 papers between 2018 and 2022 on Blockchain changing the outlook of the sustainable food supply chain to achieve net zero.

This study addresses the three research questions from 55 papers out of the sample of 1046 papers. However, for each question, the author have not demonstrated how to solve these questions. Therefore, the author should introduce the process and methodology for these questions。

Author Response

Response sheet Reviewer 3  

Manuscript Number:  Sustainability- 2072924

Title:  Blockchain changing the outlook of the sustainable food supply chain to achieve net zero?

We sincerely thank the editors and the anonymous referees for their positive and constructive comments on our paper. My co-authors and I have checked the review comments, amended the paper, and prepared this revised submission package. The detailed responses to the review comments and a summary of changes are listed in the individual responses to reviewers. The significant changes in the paper are highlighted in yellow color text. Please check the revised version of our article. 

Comment 1 This is an interesting systematic literature review with 55 papers between 2018 and 2022 on Blockchain changing the outlook of the sustainable food supply chain to achieve net zero.

This study addresses the three research questions from 55 papers out of the sample of 1046 papers. However, for each question, the author have not demonstrated how to solve these questions. Therefore, the author should introduce the process and methodology for this question.

Reply1 : Thank you very much for your valuable comment. We modified the content as per the comments. It is available in Section 1, page number 3, line no 120- 126

This is for your ready reference

Thus, this study aims to understand the comprehensive implementation of BLCT in sustainable FSC using a systematic literature review, identifying its benefits, challenges, and application by reviewing the existing knowledge and filling the knowledge gaps. It also focuses on how BLCT helps to provide food safety, security, and traceability in the network. The paper also discusses how BLCT helps to achieve the three pillars of sustainability and net zero in FSC. In light of the discussion above, we identify the following research questions for this study.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report (Previous Reviewer 1)

The Authors addressed most of the issue raised. 

Author Response

Response sheet - Reviewer 4

Manuscript Number:  Sustainability- 2072924

Title:  Blockchain changing the outlook of the sustainable food supply chain to achieve net zero?

We sincerely thank the editors and the anonymous referees for their positive and constructive comments on our paper. My co-authors and I have checked the review comments, amended the paper, and prepared this revised submission package. The detailed responses to the review comments and a summary of changes are listed in the individual responses to reviewers. The significant changes in the paper are highlighted in yellow color text. Please check the revised version of our article. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Type of the paper was not specified.

Title
Apparently, the title is meaningless: “net zero” what? Also, a tautology exists; conceptually, sustainable FSC should be already characterized by reduced emissions.

Abstract
Abstract quality is scarce; the methodological succession of Context introduction/ Methods/ Results/ Implications/ Limitations is not respected. In addition:

Please check the acronym BLCT; generally, BCT is used.

Authors should clearly explain what is intended for “net zero food supply chain”.

There is no need to include database names in the Abstract.

In this context “High quality” is a subjective term and should be avoided.

Lines 28-29 refers to the context and should be moved before methodology lines.

Study limitations (Lines 29-31) should be reported at the end of the abstract. Concerning the content, that is a strong limitation that can definitely limit study reliability.

The term “TBL” (triple bottom line?) should be introduced and defined.

Lines 34-36 is an introduction and should be moved at the beginning:

Introduction

The definition in lines 41-42 should be supported by the original reference of 1987.

Lines 70-72 is a simplistic conclusion drawn by the Authors that find no justification.

In lines 72-75 the Authors start to introduce concepts like data and information in FSCs then, again, the discourse comes back to GHG emissions. The logical path is unclear.

Lines 78-80 include the object of the study but is poorly supported by literature. Evidence and state of the art are needed.

Lines 82-83 constitutes another arbitrary conclusion: why BCT can be adapted for such a purpose? Authors are asked to justify this assertion.

Lines 90-91: this is not always true: BCT is an energy intensive technology because it often requires computational capacity to solve validation algorithms and this in turn requires relevant amounts of electrical energy.

Lines 98-99: how BCT helps FSCs achieving environmental sustainability? And, what does the Authors mean for ‘environmental sustainability’? The definition is missing.

Lines 101-103: the assertion was not demonstrated in ref 12.

Reviewer 2 Report

 This is an interesting bibliometrics as well as a systematic literature review technique on the application of BLCT on FSC, providing a knowledge structure  research between 2018 and 2022 from 55 papers out of the sample of 1046 papers. However, I detail further comments and some weaknesses with this article.

(1) There are relatively few 55 paper for the application of bibliometrics to address the knowledge structure, research themes and research trends.

(2) This article use some tables to describe the blockchain application in FSC, such as the classification, techniques and tools, Platform, the evaluation of benefits and challenges. However, the analysis should go further on how the BLCT is being used in the FSC. Therefore, the content analysis will be suitable for this research. 

Reviewer 3 Report

This review aims to examine the most recent trends, benefits, challenges, and application of blockchain technology in food supply chains and the outlook for a net zero food supply chain. This is an interesting area and the article performs sufficient analysis to understand current solutions and the direction of future research in this area. The article is well-conceived using a sufficient number of sources and the proposed search method is sufficient for conclusions. Despite the merits, there are some issues to be considered.

1. The classical literature on the Systematic Literature review (SLR) method should be cited in appropriate places. 

https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X177239

2. Information is one of the most critical elements of blockchain technology. 

It is possible to see an application review for information type sorting and different types of information processing of blockchain platforms in food supply chain scenarios. Therefore, I suggest completing this area.

3. The literature sources could be sorted deeply. For example, statistics of keywords; cooperative network; the time evolution of research topics. This seems to be more consistent with the content of general review articles, and it is easier for readers to track the related research.

4. The focus of this study is to review the matching relationship between the application of blockchain in the food supply chain and SDGs. The latest research publications of this kind should be included. For example,

https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2020.1789238

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2021.101093

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.02.009

Reviewer 4 Report

This paper provides a very detailed state-of-the-art investigation on Blockchain and Food Supply Chain.

I think that authors followed the scientific approach and did a good job.

The only suggestion I feel to give them, in order to demonstrate the importance of the blockchain technology, is to introduce a short paragraph in the introduction section. Therefore, before they get focused within the food sector, they can add relevant researches on the use of blockchain for other relevant industrial sectors (e.g., pharma, luxury, other type of goods). 

I can suggest the following papers:

a) Auer, S., Nagler, S., Mazumdar, S., & Mukkamala, R. R. (2022). Towards blockchain-IoT based shared mobility: Car-sharing and leasing as a case study. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 200, 103316.

b) Chiacchio, F., D’Urso, D., Oliveri, L. M., Spitaleri, A., Spampinato, C., & Giordano, D. (2022). A Non-Fungible Token Solution for the Track and Trace of Pharmaceutical Supply Chain. Applied Sciences, 12(8), 4019.

c)de Boissieu, E., Kondrateva, G., Baudier, P., & Ammi, C. (2021). The use of blockchain in the luxury industry: supply chains and the traceability of goods. Journal of Enterprise Information Management.