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Quality control in food supply chain management: An analytical model and case study of the adulterated milk incident in China

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  • Chen, Chialin
  • Zhang, Jun
  • Delaurentis, Teresa

Abstract

Managing the food supply chain quality and risk has received significant attention in recent years especially in global emerging markets such as India and China. In this paper, we present a mutually supporting analytical model and exploratory case to study the managerial and policy issues related to quality control in food supply chain management with a focus on the Chinese dairy industry. Based on a general supply-chain model with acceptance sampling tests under uncertain product quality, we show that, depending on the sampling technology, the decentralized supply-chain structure may lead to a distortion in product quality. We also explore the effects of different pricing and regulatory options of vertical control on product quality and the distribution of the total supply-chain profit. In addition, we use an exploratory case study of the 2008 adulterated milk incident in China to investigate practical issues in ensuring product quality/safety in food supply chain management. Our analytical results and two comparative cases show that, instead of the common “poor quality” misperception of food products from global emerging markets, it is actually the poor vertical control strategy for managing the food supply chain quality and risk that caused the adulterated milk incident. A number of other important managerial and policy insights and implications regarding supply chain design, informational visibility, corporate social responsibility, and regulatory action in managing the global food supply chain quality and risk are also discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Chialin & Zhang, Jun & Delaurentis, Teresa, 2014. "Quality control in food supply chain management: An analytical model and case study of the adulterated milk incident in China," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 188-199.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:152:y:2014:i:c:p:188-199
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2013.12.016
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    2. Retsef Levi & Somya Singhvi & Yanchong Zheng, 2020. "Economically Motivated Adulteration in Farming Supply Chains," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 209-226, January.
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    5. Wang, Haiyan & Zhan, Sha-lei & Ng, Chi To & Cheng, T.C.E., 2020. "Coordinating quality, time, and carbon emissions in perishable food production: A new technology integrating GERT and the Bayesian approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    6. Shashi & Rajwinder Singh & Piera Centobelli & Roberto Cerchione, 2018. "Evaluating Partnerships in Sustainability-Oriented Food Supply Chain: A Five-Stage Performance Measurement Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-18, December.
    7. You-hua Chen & Zhuang Zhang & Ashok K. Mishra, 2023. "A flexible and efficient hybrid agricultural subsidy design for promoting food security and safety," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Junhai Ma & Jiecai Chen & Yuxin Liu, 2022. "Research on optimization of food supply chain considering product traceability recall and safety investment," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3953-3972, December.
    9. Junqian Xu & Yuanyuan Wu, 2018. "A Comparative Study of the Role of Australia and New Zealand in Sustainable Dairy Competition in the Chinese Market after the Dairy Safety Scandals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-24, December.
    10. Jih-Kuang Chen & Tseng-Chan Tseng, 2022. "Modeling the Quality Enablers of Supplier Chain Quality Management," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, October.
    11. Caban Jacek & Kravchenko Kateryna, 2018. "Chosen Aspects of Packages in the Distribution of Selected Dairy Products," LOGI – Scientific Journal on Transport and Logistics, Sciendo, vol. 9(2), pages 1-9, November.
    12. Bin Shen & Yanhui Deng & Xin Wang & Qingying Li, 2020. "Overstated product sustainability: real cases and a game-theoretical analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 291(1), pages 779-797, August.
    13. Shashi & Rajwinder Singh & Amir Shabani, 2017. "Value‐Adding Practices in Food Supply Chain: Evidence from Indian Food Industry," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 116-130, January.
    14. Dai, Hongyan & Ge, Ling & Zhou, Weihua, 2015. "A design method for supply chain traceability systems with aligned interests," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PA), pages 14-24.
    15. Pourmohammad-Zia, Nadia & Karimi, Behrooz & Rezaei, Jafar, 2021. "Food supply chain coordination for growing items: A trade-off between market coverage and cost-efficiency," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    16. Rodrigues, Daniel & Teixeira, Rafael & Shockley, Jeff, 2019. "Inspection agency monitoring of food safety in an emerging economy: A multilevel analysis of Brazil's beef production industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 1-16.
    17. Ningzhou Shen & Yinghua Song & Dan Liu & Dalia Streimikiene, 2021. "Food Quality Competition Among Companies and Government Food Safety Supervision Under Asymmetric Product Substitution," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(56), pages 221-221, February.
    18. Guangxing Wei & Linrong Zhou & Binta Bary, 2022. "Operational Decision and Sustainability of Green Agricultural Supply Chain with Consumer-Oriented Altruism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-25, September.

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