THESIS RESEARCH TOPICS FOR THE MSc FOOD QUALITY MANAGMENT 2021 – 2022

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RESEARCH THEMES

I. FOOD QUALITY AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT II. GOVERNING FOOD SAFETY AND SUSTAINBILITY IN FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS

III. FOOD AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY IV. QUALITY DESIGN OF FOODS: PRODUCT, PROCESS, AND SUPPLY CHAIN (REDESIGN) V. CONSUMER-PRODUCT INTERACTIONS IN CONSUMER CHAINS VI. PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF NOVEL PROTEIN FOODS

e.g. INSECTS

VII. FOOD QUALITY AND LOGISTICS MODELLING

VIII. FOOD QUALITY AND LAW

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I. FOOD QUALITY AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT

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1. Study of cross-modal sensing approaches for detecting food hazards in warehouses with robots Supervisor: João Valente (INF) Building on previous research of: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality and food logistics, Quality control and assurance Open: to 2 students

Problem description

Advanced food safety strategies are needed to enforce the food laws and protect the consumer against unsafe, impure and fraudulently presented food. An utmost challenge is to improve detection of food multiscale outbreaks that could be critical to human health. Nowadays there are several high-throughput screening technologies that are able to detect different food hazardous but most of them require exhaustive laboratory analysis and are expensive instrumentation. Robots are today used in warehouse facilities to transport materials, supplies, and inventory. Increasing their perception capacity would help to increase food safety measurements from imported and exported goods.

The overall aim of this project is to investigate about cross-modal sensing using artificial vision and olfaction sensors and how to apply it to mobile robots to detect contaminated food in storage facilities, such as warehouses. The study will be conducted following two independent strategies: 1) Theorical; 2) Practical. In strategy 1) we are looking to know more about how to design a multi-modal vision-olfaction interaction scheme, and in 2) we would like to play and experiment using a consumer-electronic camera and an electrochemical sensor. These objectives through the following steps:

1) Literature review. 2) Propose the design of a multi-model sensing approach. 3) Experiments and tests. 4) Writing a report.

Fans

Gas sensor

Camera

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2. How do food companies create a positive food safety culture within their organisations and what are the challenges for maintaining it? Supervisors: Ebru Cengiz and Pieternel Luning Building on the research of MFQ students: New topic Possibility to combine with internship: Yes MFQ specialisations: Quality management and entrepreneurship, Quality assurance and control Open to one student

Problem description

In the food industry, every company from small vendors to large multinational ones know the importance of maintaining food safety standards. However, in the complex and demanding food supply chain, food safety should become a part of and live within the culture of a company. Moreover, the most recent Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) Benchmarking Requirements (2020) incorporated FS-culture, driving its development in the international food safety standards internationally such as IFS, BRC, FSSC 22000 and SQF. Sharman et al. (2020), in their review of FS-culture terminology, suggested culture relates to deeply rooted organisational beliefs, behaviours, and assumptions learned and shared by employees. On the other hand, the food safety climate is temporary and refers to individual perceptions and attitudes and how they influence others to apply the FSMS. Determinants for conducting FS-culture encompasses the technological and managerial/organisational conditions, human factors, the FSMS, and the external business environment like national culture and food safety governance (Nyarugwe et al., 2016). Food safety culture is a relatively new topic in the food industry. It adds value to the food supply chain from the farm/factory to the consumer. It is part of a commitment to safe and high-quality products. The food companies try to create and maintain the desired behaviour toward food safety throughout their organisation, which is challenging. The MSc project aims at trying to find out how food businesses try to create a positive food safety culture within their organisation and what are the challenges they face to maintain it. If a company can be found that is interested in the topic then the student can do participatory research including observations, interviews, document analysis, etc (Zanin et al, 2021). Otherwise, the study will include a semi-structured literature analysis to develop a research framework, which can serve as the basis for expert interviews. Sharman, N., Wallace, C.A., Jespersen, L. (2020). Terminology and the understanding of culture, climate and behavioural change – Impact of organisational and human factors on food safety management. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 96(2020), 13-20.

Nyarugwe, S. P., Linneman, A., Hofstede, G. J., & Fogliano, V., & Luning, P.A. (2016). Review: Determinants for conducting food safety culture research. Trends in Food Science and Technology, 56, 77-87.

Zanin, L.M., Luning, P.A., da Cunhac, D.T., & Stedefeldt, E. (2021). Influence of educational actions on transitioning of food safety culture in a food service context: Part 1 - Triangulation and data interpretation of food safety culture elements. Food Control, 119 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2020.107447

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3. Understanding the challenges of a food company for adjusting their food safety/quality management systems as quality/safety standards launch new versions Supervisors: Ebru Cengiz and Pieternel Luning Building on research of MFQ students: New topic Possibility to combine with internship: Yes MFQ specialisations: Quality management and entrepreneurship, Quality assurance and control Open: to 1-2 students

Problem description

In the food industry, the certification has come to the fore as one of the quality management approaches and many companies in the food business choose to gain accreditation of a recognised quality standard. Demonstrating compliance with standards has great importance to consumer confidence as products and services become increasingly technically complex. Food companies are also entitled to use the certificate awarded to them in their marketing strategy. There are different schemes/standards for food manufacturing businesses to guarantee the quality of food, such as IFS (International Featured Standards); BRC (British Retail Consortium); ISO9001 Food quality management standard (International Organisation for Standardisation); ISO22000 FSMS-Food Safety Management System; and Food Safety System Certification (FSSC) 22000, etc. There is also GFSI (The Global Food Safety Initiative) which is the standard for benchmarking to ensure the safety of food by developing a uniform structure for food safety standards and reduce the costs for auditing of each single standard. The principal idea was that food companies can implement on GFSI benchmarked standard instead of implementing multiple different private standards each with its own certification requirements. Nevertheless, food companies still need to regularly update/fully revise their food safety/quality management systems as scheme owners of the private standards launch new versions. This brings new challanges for the food companies in implementing the new versions and can even require substantial organisational changes. The MSc project aims at understanding the challenges food businesses may encounter and how they can organise these changes while adapting their food safety or quality management systems after modifications of the private standards and which organisational and technological conditions play a role. The study includes a semi-structured literature analysis and expert interviews.

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4. Understanding the conditions for a correct HACCP interpretation in the food industry Supervisors: Elsbeth Spelt and Paul Besseling (Pbesseling@precon.group) Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisation: Quality control and assurance Open to one student

Problem description In 2015, both the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) and the European Commission published reports on their evaluation of the implementation of the HACCP-system. Both reports support the HACCP-system as it is, yet they identify a lack of understanding in some of it’s the core concepts. According to the CCFH report1 this leads to “inappropriate proliferation of CCPs where the CCP definition is misunderstood or misapplied”. The report of the European Commission2 states that “MSs (member states) indicated that the concept of CCPs was widely misunderstood and their identification posed a difficulty for some businesses.” and “many of the difficulties identified result from a lack of understanding or misinterpretation of core concepts.” Previous research (e.g. Wallace, 2014) showed the incorrect interpretation among HACCP team members and research of Sondag (2021) also initially demonstrated the incorrect interpretation among food auditors. We would like to elaborate these research findings to better understand what happens and why. Therefore, this master thesis research has three parts: a) Understanding why this (in)correct interpretation happens among food professionals by conducting

a literature review on the fostering conditions of correct interpretation and hampering conditions of not correct interpretation

b) Elaborating the sample of respondents using the interview procedure of Sonday (2021) among HACCP team members and auditors

c) Validating the conditions found among HACCP members and food auditors by using the developed questionnaire of Sondag (2021) elaborated for the conditions identified in part A

The understanding of conditions for a correct HACCP interpretation among food professionals would contribute to the correct implementation of HACCP and these insights can be used by food trainers and consultants to develop their training and modules.

References & further reading Wallace, C. A., Holyoak, L., Powell, S. C., & Dykes, F. C. (2014). HACCP – The difficulty with Hazard Analysis. Food Control, 35(1), 233–240. Sondag, P. (2021). HACCP key concepts analysis: The extent to which HACCP principles are correctly interpret by HACCP teams and third-party auditors. Master thesis report, Wageningen University and Research.

1 DISCUSSION PAPER ON THE REVISION OF THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FOOD HYGIENE (CAC/RCP 1-1969) AND ITS HACCP ANNEX - Agenda Item 8 CX/FH 15/47/9 - JOINT FAO/WHO FOOD STANDARDS PROGRAMME - CODEX COMMITTEE ON FOOD HYGIENE - Forty-seventh Session - Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, 9 - 13 November 2015. 2 REPORT ON THE STATE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF HACCP IN THE EU AND AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT Ref. Ares(2015)2384183 - 08/06/2015 - EUROPEAN COMMISSION - DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY - Directorate F - Food and Veterinary Office - DG(SANTE) 2015-7752 – MR

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5. An analysis on the critical quality points in orange juice production using HACCP Supervisor: Elsbeth Spelt Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship, Quality and food logistics Open to one student

Problem description Food companies strive for high quality food day-by-day. Integrated supply chains, sophisticated control measures, quality-controlled logistics (QCL), and novel measurement techniques facilitate food companies in realizing high quality food. Each of these measurements addresses a single aspect in realizing food quality and lacks an integrated, preferably techno-managerial, point of view. The Quality Analysis Critical Control Points (QACCP) method involves the integrated techno-managerial analysis of Critical Quality Points (CQPs) affecting food quality. A CQP is a critical point in controlling quality attributes in order to prevent unacceptable food quality and to achieve less variation in food quality. Previous research (e.g., Verkerk et al., 2007) highlighted the benefits of using this method for the food industry. These benefits are the reduction of food quality losses and minimization of variation in the quality of the produced food. Multiple MFQ thesis students did the QACCP analysis using the few previous QACCP method publications. However, these analyses remained quite theoretically. Interestingly is now to investigate the possibility of using the HACCP principles for defining a CQP instead of a CCP. The application of HACCP to QACCP could be beneficial to food companies to identify and verify in a rather quick way the control points for quality in their production process. Therefore, the central question in this research is: What are the CQPs for orange juice production by using the HACCP method?

The following research activities need to be conducted: - Critically reading the HACCP method by reading the handbook HACCP – a practical approach*; - Critically reading the QACCP method by reading previous research and QACCP publications; - Critically conducting the newly developed QACCP method of 7 steps based upon HACCP by

means of a literature review followed by expert interviews and company visits.

The overall aims of this thesis project is a) to contribute to the understanding of using the 7 steps of HACCP to identify CQP (theoretical aim) and b) to contribute to the lecture on CQPs in orange juice production for the Food logistics management course (practical aim). You will work on this research in a learning community with two to three other students researching similar kinds of topics. References & further reading *Mortimore S. & Wallace, C. (2013) HACCP – a practical approach third edition, Springer, New York. Van der Spiegel, M., & Vollebregt, H. M. (2008). QACCP - verbinding van product en proceskwaliteit. Wageningen: Wageningen University and Research. Verkerk, R., Linnemann, A., & VanBoekel, M. A. J. S. (2007). Quality analysis critical control points in consumer-oriented agro-food chains. In R. Ruben, M. A. J. S. VanBoekel, A. VanTilburg, & J. Trienekes (Eds.), Tropical food chains. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publishers.

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6. An analysis on the critical quality points in stirred yoghurt production using HACCP Supervisor: Elsbeth Spelt Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open to one student

Problem description Food companies strive for high quality food day-by-day. Integrated supply chains, sophisticated control measures, quality-controlled logistics (QCL), and novel measurement techniques facilitate food companies in realizing high quality food. Each of these measurements addresses a single aspect in realizing food quality and lacks an integrated, preferably techno-managerial, point of view. The Quality Analysis Critical Control Points (QACCP) method involves the integrated techno-managerial analysis of Critical Quality Points (CQPs) affecting food quality. A CQP is a critical point in controlling quality attributes in order to prevent unacceptable food quality and to achieve less variation in food quality. Previous research (e.g., Verkerk et al., 2007) highlighted the benefits of using this method for the food industry. These benefits are the reduction of food quality losses and minimization of variation in the quality of the produced food.

Multiple MFQ thesis students did the QACCP analysis using the few previous QACCP method publications. However, these analyses remained quite theoretically. Interestingly is now to investigate the possibility of using the HACCP principles for defining a CQP instead of a CCP. The application of HACCP to QACCP could be beneficial to food companies to identify and verify in a rather quick way the control points for quality in their production process. Therefore, the central question in this research is: What are the CQPs for stirred yoghurt production by using the HACCP method?

The following research activities need to be conducted: - Critically reading the HACCP method by reading the handbook HACCP – a practical approach*; - Critically reading the QACCP method by reading previous research and QACCP publications; - Critically conducting the newly developed QACCP method of 7 steps based upon HACCP by

means of a literature review followed by expert interviews and company visits. The overall aims of this thesis project is a) to contribute to the understanding of using the 7 steps of HACCP to identify CQPs (theoretical aim) and b) to contribute to the lecture on CQPs in stirred yoghurt product for the Food quality analysis & judgement course (practical aim). You will work on this research in a learning community with two to three other students researching similar kinds of topics.

References & further reading *Mortimore S. & Wallace, C. (2013) HACCP – a practical approach third edition, Springer, New York. Van der Spiegel, M., & Vollebregt, H. M. (2008). QACCP - verbinding van product en proceskwaliteit. Wageningen: Wageningen University and Research. Verkerk, R., Linnemann, A., & VanBoekel, M. A. J. S. (2007). Quality analysis critical control points in consumer-oriented agro-food chains. In R. Ruben, M. A. J. S. VanBoekel, A. VanTilburg, & J. Trienekes (Eds.), Tropical food chains. Wageningen: Wageningen Academic Publishers.

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7. Towards a dashboard to forecast the effects of trends on our food systems from farm to fork - in 2050 and beyond Supervisors: Pieternel Luning and Bea Steenbekkers (FQD), and supervisor from another group Building on previous research: New topic Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: All Open: to 1-2 students

Problem description Todays’ global food system is complex and dynamic. Climate change, worldwide population growth and the need for a circular economy challenge the production of palatable, nutritious, affordable and safe food. Our food system (in the broadest sense) is subject to multiple triggers and trends like climate change, growth of the world population, economic, political and technological developments. These trends can influence food production from farm to fork and impact human health and well-being, and the safety and environmental impact of food. According to Kampers and Fresco (https://edepot.wur.nl/423601) “Food is vulnerable to degradation in terms of quantity, quality and safety. Identifying, controlling and mitigating these risks is a challenge for all actors operating in the food supply.”. They advocate that there is a need for proactive early warning systems based on a systems approach that acknowledges the complexity of production systems and their environment. In the Food Cluster group at WUR, a combined initiative (FQD, FHM, FPH) has been started to develop a dashboard to forecast the effects of the trends on the food systems and their impact on human health and well-being, food safety and environmental impact. The dashboard could consist of a multitude of qualitative and quantitative indicators to monitor the trends and their effects. Another objective is to understand the mechanisms of technological, legal and human interventions that can interfere in the food system to maintain health, well-being, and food safety and minimise environmental impact. The research raises questions like what are the main current trends in society that can influence our food systems and how; what are useful indicators to monitor these trends and effects; which models and concepts could support in predicting/simulating the effects of these trends on the food system; what could be useful data to feed these models, and which data are lacking; what are possible technological, legal and human interventions; can we recognise generic patterns in the emergent behaviour of food systems, etc. This overarching MSc project aims to explore current trends that can affect our food production system, understand how these trends can influence the food production system from farm-to-fork, and identify indicators that could monitor the trends and their effects. The project can be demarcated into

1. Focus on primary production, or food manufacturing or catering/domestic context 2. Focus on specific food supply chains (e.g. plant-based)

The topic will be further specified at the start of the project.

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8. Understanding developments in food safety behaviour of street-food vendors and the role of stakeholders, post COVID-19 Supervisors: Pieternel Luning (FQD), Araceli Pilamala (PhD) Building on previous research: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: Possible depending on the Covid situation MFQ specialisation: Quality control and assurance Open to one student

Problem description Street foods are an integral part of many cultures and offer at affordable prices. However, it is consistently remained a major global health challenge, receiving great attention as foodborne diseases persist. The consumption of food outside the home is causing approximately 60% of these diseases of microbial origin. The reason behind this problem could be the poor food safety behaviour of vendors, especially during the purchasing of raw materials, storing, and preparation steps. Many studies have mentioned various conditions associated with the production, the business and food safety regulation and enforcement that may influence the SFVs' hygiene behaviour and consequently the safety of street food. Ecuador reported cases of foodborne illnesses, including shigellosis, food poisoning, salmonellosis, and hepatitis. Health governmental organizations found microbiological and physical contamination in samples of street foods during inspections. These organizations developed health education programs for actors along the food production chain, and control compliance to regulations on food handling practices. Despite all efforts, non-compliance to safety and hygiene measures still occurs particularly in food production with less controllable systems like street food production. Therefore, street vendor foods are highly vulnerable to food safety problems and imply considerable health risks.

The MSc thesis is part of a PhD project about the development of behavioural-based approaches to enhance hygiene practices in street food vendors in Ecuador. Previous MSc theses reviewed the literature on factors influencing food hygiene practices, developed an initial framework, and conducted interviews with street food handlers and experts in Spain. Moreover, further research is suggested to examine the conditions under which street food operate in developed countries. Additionally, the current pandemic is going to force the transformation in food consumption, eating habits, new concern about hygiene, personal safety, and social distancing. Street food will see a new actuality, post-Covid-19, where reinvention might be a positive outcome of this situation. This may mean renewing itself by considering food safety principles. Therefore, the current research aims to refine the methods for data collection (e.g., picture-based, using movies) with food handlers, to further validate the research framework, and investigate the role of stakeholders (official authorities, customers, etc) in street food vendors’ food hygiene behaviour, post COVID-19. The scope and details of the research will be further defined at the start.

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9. Safety and authenticity risks in heritage food production- do differences in foodservice establishment characteristics play a role? Supervisors: Mohammad Almansouri (PhD), Pieternel Luning (FQD) Building on previous research: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: Yes, possible MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, User-oriented food quality Open: to 1-2 students

Problem description Nowadays, there is increasing consumer interest in extrinsic food quality attributes, which relate to how foods are produced, such as in a traditional way, or according to food culture, philosophy. Food concepts like traditional foods, ethnic foods, heritage food, particularly address these extrinsic attributes. Heritage food is a quite new concept. Such food inherits from community ancestors and it usually has a long history of consumption, and it is commonly part of the cultural history of any population. A previous study conceptualised heritage food into three characteristics. These characteristics were identified from the descriptions of heritage food and other related concepts (ethnic, local, and traditional foods) and included ‘association with a particular people’, ‘‘association with a geographic area/place’, and ‘legacy’. Furthermore, an initial analysis identified factors, which could compromise the authenticity of heritage food in the hospitality industry. For example, limited availability of the ingredients, time-consuming traditional cooking equipment and methods, and restricted knowledge and skills of cooks could affect authenticity. The previous master study developed a customised tool to qualitatively differentiating the authenticity risks in heritage food production. In particular, it focused on identifying crucial authenticity risk characteristics, indicators of authenticity risks, their mechanisms, criteria to differentiate those risks and stereotypical risk situations. The empirical research was done with academic and culinary experts and they validated the indicators and the grids with stereotypical risk situations. Further study is needed to conduct a pilot study to research to what extent the customised tool can assess the vulnerability towards authenticity loss of different heritage food dishes. The study aims to test the usefulness and robustness of the tool to assess and differentiate the authenticity risks in the production of heritage food in the hospitality industry. 1- What are the criteria to select the type of heritage food and food service establishments? 2- To what extent do authenticity risks differ between different types of FSE that prepare heritage food? 3- To what extent do authenticity risks differ for productive households that prepare heritage food? The type of heritage food, country of origin, and the focus on the types of FSE will be further defined upon the start of the thesis project.

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10. Assessment of farmers’ compliance behaviour to biosecurity measures as the basis for improvement interventions? Supervisors: Pieternel Luning (FQD), Ewa Pacholewicz, Miriam Koene (Wageningen Bioveterinary Research) Building on previous research: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: Yes, but Dutch speaking skills required as the study will be with Dutch farmers MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, User-oriented food quality Open to one student

Problem description Campylobacter contamination in fresh poultry products is an ongoing food safety challenge for the meat industry. Campylobacteriosis is one of the most commonly reported zoonosis worldwide. Much research focused on slaughtering houses, as Campylobacter contamination commonly occurs at various slaughtering steps. However, as the source of Campylobacter contamination is the contaminated flocks at the entry of processing, the research interest shifted towards understanding compliance behaviour to food security measures (i.e. a broad set of hygiene measures to mitigate the chance of Campylobacter contamination) at the farm to avoid that flocks are contaminated. An explorative MSc thesis study investigated the possible challenges in complying with the biosecurity measures at the farms level and the opportunities to improve compliance behaviour. The next thesis research developed a diagnostic tool to assess farm, farm management, and farmer conditions that can impact the compliance to biosecurity measures. In a follow-up study, the tool will be tested and applied in a quantitative study as the basis for the development of improvement interventions. The MSc project aims at investigating differences in influencing conditions amongst farmers using the diagnostic tool as the basis for the development and testing of dedicated (training) interventions. The project is a collaboration with Wageningen Bioveterinary Research. Pacholewicz, E. Barus, S.A.S., Swart, A., Havelaar, A.H., Lipman, L.J.A., & Luning, P.A. (2016). Influence of food handlers’ compliance with procedures of poultry carcasses contamination: a case study concerning evisceration in broiler slaughterhouses. Food Control, 68, 367-378.

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11. Understanding the challenges and opportunities of hygienic design and cleaning and disinfection in Listeria control Supervisors: Pieternel Luning (FQD), Mark Swainson (Lincoln University, the UK) Building on previous research: New topic Possibility to combine with internship: Yes MFQ specialisation: Quality control and assurance Open to one student

Problem description

The cause of Listeriosis, Listeria monocytogenes is the deadliest foodborne pathogen in the UK and EU with a particularly high mortality rate (30%) associated with this pathogen (Public Health England 2018, 2020). Also, the capacity grows at low temperatures and its ability to form biofilms enables Listeria monocytogenes to persist in food manufacturing facilities (Ferreira et al 2014). It is particularly a threat to Ready-To-Eat (RTE) food manufacturers because in case of contamination there will be no further opportunity to remove the pathogen from the product before consumption.

These facts about Listeria pose high requirements on cleaning and disinfection and hygienic design of equipment and facilities. However, in food manufacturing, misunderstanding of the contamination routes of Listeria and inadequate cleaning practices combined with poorly designed facilities and/or equipment still commonly

occur. Often there is confusion about how to clean and disinfect high care and high-risk environments and human mistakes are easily made (e.g. inadequate dosing of chemicals, using wrong chemicals, not adhering to correct cleaning procedure, etc.). The overall aim of the study is to get insight into the root causes of failures in C&D and the hygienic design of facilities and equipment to better understand the challenges and opportunities in Listeria control. The study will consist of a literature review about failures in hygienic design and C&D and root causes, experts interviews and document analysis. The analysis will be conducted from three different perspectives: 1. Manufacturing perspective – interviews with hygiene companies

(like Christeyns and Diversey) to understand the challenges of the manufacturing companies in hygienic design and C&D and with food manufacturing companies (semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions)

2. Legislative perspective- document analysis of legal documents and other related sector standards related to hygienic design and C&D

3. EHEDG perspective- analysis of the related EHEDG guidance documents.

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12. Developing a framework of (performance) indicators to assess the effectiveness of management system implementation? The case of FSSC 22000 Supervisors: Pieternel Luning (FQD), Aldin Hilbrands/Elsabe Matthee (FSSC 22000) Building on previous research: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open to one student

Problem description Today’s food companies should have an effective quality and safety management system in place to cope with the dynamic business environment and the customer requirements for food safety, integrity, quality and sustainability. Besides compliance with legal requirements, food companies increasingly use private standards to set up/improve their FSMS and/or QMS. Various private standards are widely acknowledged, such as the retailer-driven standards (such as BRC or IFS) but also management system standards like ISO22000 and Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000). The scheme owners of these private standards regularly update and expand the standards to anticipate food safety trends and other trends in society and technology to improve the effectiveness of the standard. For scheme owners, it is not only crucial to get feedback from representatives from the food supply chain, certification bodies, and other stakeholders but also to gain a deeper science-based understanding of the applicability and potential effectiveness of the implementation of their standard. Various studies focused on understanding drivers and barriers for the implementation of private standards (e.g. Herzfeld et al, 2011), but very few studies investigated the impact of the implemented standards on the food business performance. How to accurately assess the effectiveness of implemented private standards and what are useful indicators for the assessment is not well established. The Food Safety System Certification – so-called FSSC 22000 – is a relatively new scheme launched in 2009 and uses a management system standard rather than a comprehensive set of prescriptive requirements on a company’s FSMS used by the retail-driven standards. FSSC 22000 provides a comprehensive certification scheme for the auditing and certification of an FSMS. FSSC 22000 is GFSI-recognized and suitable for various supply chain sectors such as animal farming, food and feed manufacturing, packaging material manufacturing, transport and storage, catering and retail. The scheme owner FSSC 22000 is interested in understanding how the effectiveness of an implemented FSSC 22000 standard can be monitored through useful indicators (dashboard/metrics)? Insights in how to monitor the performance of a private-based FSMS will support the further evolvement of the standard to cope with the dynamic food supply chain environment and remain the frontrunner in the field. The thesis study aims to investigate how companies monitor the performance of their FSMS based on the FSSC 22000 standard, what kind of (lagging and/or leading) indicators they use, how they develop/improve these indicators and how they use the data of the indicators to improve the effectiveness of their FSMS. The thesis will build further on an explorative MSc thesis research and the topic will be further refined at the start of the thesis together with FSSC. Herzfeld, T., Drescher, L.S., & Carola Grebitus, C. (2011) Cross-national adoption of private food quality standards. Food

Policy, 36 (2011) 401–411

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13. Towards risk-based supplier control based on key-risk factors for mycotoxins in (inter)national feed and food ingredients supply chains Supervisors: Pieternel Luning, Wilma Taverne, Klementina Kirezieva (Cargill) Building on the research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: Yes, in principle combined with an internship at Cargill Rotterdam MFQ specialisation: Quality control and assurance Open: to 1-2 students

Problem description Globalization increased awareness of the various risks and vulnerabilities that products are exposed to as they move along the supply chain continuum from design and sourcing to manufacturing, transportation, distribution, and final sale. Particularly vegetable-based ingredients for feed and food supply chains (like grains, maize) are vulnerable to chemical hazards like dioxins and mycotoxins. Large feed and food companies purchase their vegetable-based raw materials from all over the world and therefore put many efforts into chemical safety control of their supplies. However, as it is not possible to control intensively all bulk raw materials that commonly arrive by ships, they need to adjust their incoming material control system towards the riskiness (i.e. the risk that supplies are contaminated because of multiple factors along the supply chain) of their suppliers; the so-called risk-based supplier control. Understanding the key-risk factors that contribute to chemical contamination and insights into the effectiveness of control measures earlier in the supply chain are crucial for companies globally purchasing ingredients. Another ongoing challenge in the field of chemical control is the development of new norms (by authorities such as EFSA) for chemical contaminants; based on risk assessment new norms are defined. Usually, these norms are stricter which means that companies need to anticipate the new norms by adjusting and improving their risk-based supplier control system. Currently, a document is in development describing stricter norms for mycotoxins (like DON, zearalenone, fumonisins) in food and feed ingredients.

Cargill, as a large producer of vegetable-based ingredients for feed and food, therefore, needs to investigate the key-risk factors for mycotoxin contamination along the chains of their (inter)national suppliers of bulk vegetable ingredients to improve their risk-based supplier control system and comply with the expected new legal norms. This is also challenging because the regulation for mycotoxin is not worldwide harmonized.

The study will further work on a previous thesis that conducted a semi-structured literature review to identify contamination sources and factors increasing the occurrence of mycotoxins, control measures, and legal requirements on mycotoxins. The thesis research aims at analysing key-risk factors of different suppliers from Europe and beyond for different vegetable-based bulk products by in-depth interviews, data analysis of current supplies, document analysis, and where possible on-site visits. The research should result in an overview and ranking of key-risk factors as input for the risk-based supplier control systems and advice for improvement of mycotoxin control measures of suppliers. The thesis topic will be further defined upon the start of the project in collaboration with the Cargill supervisors.

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14. Exploring the potential of digital platforms for SME’s – how can it support food safety, quality and customer value creation? Supervisors: Pieternel Luning (FQD), Maria Annosi (BMO) Building on previous research: New topic Possibility to combine with internship: Maybe MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open to one student

Problem description

In recent years, digital transformation has revolutionized the way companies conduct business, create relationships with consumers, suppliers, and other stakeholders (Bresciani et al., 2018, Scuotto et al., 2019), and foster business model innovation and customer value creation. Digital transformation is how “a firm employs digital technologies, to develop a new digital business model that helps to create and appropriate more value for the firm” (Verhoef et al., 2019, p.1). Such transformation affects business processes, operational routines, and organizational capabilities (Li, Su, Zhang, & Mao, 2018). Digitalization is shaping the traditional interaction between consumers and businesses (Taiminen & Karjaluoto, 2015). In particular, consumers have access to dozens of media channels through which to communicate actively and effortlessly with firms and other consumers, passing through a rapidly increasing number of touchpoints on their customer journey (Verhoef et al., 2019). Therefore, the digital platforms have taken on a brokerage function bridging different actors in the food supply chain. Yet, extant literature has overlooked this novel type of brokerage that exploits digital technology for the transfer and recovery of resources between supply chain actors, including the information about the perceived quality of the product. Indeed existing literature has traditionally explored the implementation of digital technologies in large corporations (e.g. Cenamor, Parida, & Wincent, 2019) or, in innovative businesses, digital startups, and high-tech giants (e.g. Ghezzi & Cavallo, 2020). However, specific studies focusing on SMEs operating in food manufacturing are relatively scarce. Understanding how these SMEs (potentially could) utilize digitalization to continuously improve food safety and quality and shape the process of customer value creation requires more in-depth investigation. The overall aim of the MSc thesis is to study the role of the digital platform acting as an advisor and the intra-organizational effect of the new conveyed information about the quality and safety of the food products they make. Moreover, we want to get insight into how this can lead to the definition of new quality management practices, especially in SMEs. The research will include an inductive qualitative approach due to its innovative character.

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15. Investigating barriers in the risk assessment of recyclable food packaging Supervisors: Niels van der Linden (FQD/LAW); Pieternel Luning (FQD) Building on previous research: New topic Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open to one student

Problem situation The food system is in a big transition; consumers are becoming more aware of the environmental impact of their food and are demanding higher quality foods with a lower carbon footprint. Meanwhile, governments at different levels are tightening regulations in the entire chain, from lower pesticide use and residues to lower emissions from agriculture. In Europe, the farm-to-fork strategy has several goals that impact the entire chain, while also increasing the level of circularity of the sector. This call for more sustainable circularity also applies to food packaging and food contact materials in general. Food contact materials made from renewable sources, higher recycling rates, and the banning of harmful substances are all being investigated. While generally applauded, there are multiple barriers to achieve this in the short term. For example, Food Safety Authorities face a major challenge on risk assessments of the resulting mixtures that are generated by recycling processes. Innovations in food packaging are often halted by legal barriers by either using not-allowed materials (renewable bioplastics) or by being prevented from performing their designed function (active materials). In general, there is a lack of scientific knowledge in a field that by law should be based on available scientific evidence. The PhD project aims to investigate the different barriers that actors in the food safety system experience in the transformation towards a more circular economy. The project is part of the European project “FoodSafety4EU (https://foodsafety4.eu/project/) that aims to design, develop and release a multi-stakeholder platform and innovative digital tools to help citizens, scientists, companies, EC, EFSA, and Food Safety Authorities co-design and shape together with the future Food Safety System in Europe. The MSc research will focus on the analysis of possible barriers in the risk assessment of recyclable food packaging. The details of the research topic will be further defined based on the project development.

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16. Auditing food quality & safety systems Supervisors: Geoffrey Hagelaar and Elsbeth Spelt Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: Yes MFQ specialisation: Quality control and assurance Open: to 1-2 students

Problem description Certification of food quality & safety management systems reflects a shift of public governance to private governance. Private governance means that organizations like retailers develop their own standard and relate the standard to a certificate which can be adopted by their suppliers. For supermarkets, standard setting is not only targeted at governing the stakeholders in the supply chain to ultimately selling the product with the intended food safety and quality attributes. The standard is developing into a strategic issue as well with which new markets can be developed and penetrated. Because of the commercial benefits the number of certification rises (aimed at developing specific markets) but as well the number of companies that implement certificates increases (aimed at reaping the benefits). At the same time certificates are interpreted as signals of trustworthiness of the products towards the customers/consumers. Certification provides assurance to stakeholders about the production process and the product itself. With the increasing number of certificates and certificate holders, and the trustworthiness claim towards customers/consumers, the pressure on valid auditing of the implemented certificates on company level increases. However, auditing of certificates is a complex matter. Basically, because a certificate is designed to be general in nature and adoptable in specific circumstances. ‘General in nature’ means that a certificate needs to be formulated in such a general manner that many different companies can adopt it in their specific circumstances. This means that requirements specified in the certificate need to be translated by the company to fit to their specific local circumstances. The auditor plays an important role in acting as a bridge between the general certificate requirements and the decision on compliance in specific company practices. In other words, the auditor needs to assess whether the translation form general to specific has been done in a correct manner. This can raise tension between the uniformity of the auditing process and its resulting decisions, and the flexibility to adapt the system to local circumstances. As the inspection needs to be done in such a manner that auditors auditing a certain certificate should come up with similar judgements in similar cases, the following question comes up: how are certificates audited in reality and which factors influence the auditing of certificates.

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17. Maintenance of food quality management systems Supervisors: Geoffrey Hagelaar and Catriona Lakemond Building on previous research of: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open: to 2 students

Problem description Maintenance of food quality management system (FQMS), after its implementation, is crucial for companies. By means of maintenance, resulting in keeping up with the standard and improvement, companies stay compliant to regulation and certification and stay competitive by being to deliver the promised quality to the customer/consumer.

However, although maintenance is of importance, maintenance is a matter of constant monitoring of the business environment and the company internal operations, identifying deficiencies, deciding to change and/or improve and implement them. A company’s business environment is dynamic as governmental regulations can change, certificates requirements are adjusted, processing opportunities/requirements and consumer preferences change. Company internal operations are checked on the effectivity, efficiency and suppliers and operators behaviour which can also lead to adjustments in guidelines, procedures in the FQMS. Also these externally and internally driven changes and improvements need to be registered and documented as part of a maintenance process .

This organizational effort is a constant field of attention for companies which needs to be addressed without endangering the continuity of the FQMS itself. In literature the topic of maintenance seems to be underestimated looking at the attention given to this theme. More specific fields of research within this theme are factors that influence the maintenance process, namely? the company internal collaboration to successfully maintain the FQMS, the complexity of certificates and the maintenance process, the complexity of the technology and its operation.

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II. GOVERNING FOOD SAFETY AND SUSTAINBILITY IN FOOD SUPPLY CHAINS

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18. How to improve food quality through supply chain collaborations? First supervisor: Geoffrey Hagelaar Building on research of MFQ students: No Possibility to combine with internship: To be discussed MFQ specialisation: Quality control and assurance Open to one student

Problem description ‘26 French babies sick. French food safety inspectors missed salmonella at baby milk factory’ (January 2018, Le Monde). ‘2.5 million chicken slaughtered because of Fipronil contamination of eggs in the Netherlands.’ (September 2017, de Volkskrant). These quotes are only two examples of food safety and quality scandals that reached the international newspapers. Each food scandal has enormous consequences. Consumers might suffer from health issues, and lose their trust in a certain product or supply chain. Farmers, food manufacturers and other chain actors lose their income, might receive a fine, and suffer from reputation damage. The scandals demonstrate that taking responsibility by companies for food safety and quality doesn’t always seem to be apparent. Taking responsibility in this topic is approached from the angle of organizing collaboration between departments of a company and between companies in a supply chain. After all, an organizational aligned company and supply chain on safety and quality goals, can ensure food quality and safety of the food stuffs. The following general research question underlies this topic: Which factors from a technological and managerial nature influence the organizational alignment of companies and/or supply chains which then hinders the achievement of the intended food safety and quality? Food quality and safety is the outcome of processing activities among all actors in a supply chain, from producer to consumer which ultimately are guaranteed by control and assurance. However, achieving food quality and safety takes place in a dynamic environment. Changing preferences, requirements, technology influence quality specifications of raw materials and those of end products. This changing of attention for quality and safety of food stuffs impacts the way different companies and supply chains organize their production process inclusive their quality control and assurance. Hence organizational alignment within and between companies in such a dynamic environment, is a continuous process. How are food quality and assurance systems within a company and in a supply chain re-aligned? You are free to choose a supply chain case study from your own country or a country of your interest.

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19. Developments in private food safety requirements in Chinese food industries Supervisors: Geoffrey Hagelaar, Pieternel Luning, Yingxue Ren (PhD) Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: Yes Recommended: Chinese language skill is recommended because of the character of the case study MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open to one student

Problem description In the last decade, many food safety issues occurred in China. Several food safety hazards are abusive additive use, metal contamination, presence of mycotoxins, and chemical residues. In order to regain consumer trust, food manufacturers are now increasingly adopting food safety requirements both from public and private. Since the public food safety requirements are insufficient to deal with current situation, increasing private food safety requirements come to stage, such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), ISO 22000, FSSC 22000, to improve food safety. In general, private food safety requirements can be clustered into two kinds. One is food safety requirements on food products, e.g. Organic Food, Green Food. Another one is those on food production system, HACCP, ISO22000. They contribute to food safety via different ways. Food companies adopt private food safety requirements (on system) to establish their company specific Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS). The FSMS is part of the quality management system aimed at controlling and assuring microbiological, chemical and physical food safety. FSMS performance, however, does not only depend on the level of control and assurance activities but also depends on the systems’ context riskiness. As part of food safety governance system, private food safety requirements play important role in FSMS’s context. Although private food safety requirements are not mandatory in China, the development of private food safety requirements heavily depend on food safety governance. For instance, to promote and encourage the adoption of HACCP system in food companies (Jin et al., 2016; Jin et al., 2008), many local governments provide subsidy policies for those companies to support their adoption (Bai, Ma, Gong, et al., 2007). How do private food safety requirements interact with public food safety requirements and how do food companies perceive the interacts? These are important research questions. The thesis is part of a PhD project on understanding the mechanisms behind food safety governance and FSMS performance in the Chinese food sector. This MSc thesis project aims to explore the interaction between public and private food safety requirements and the impact of the interact put on FSMS in the view of food safety governance. The thesis is to be combined with an internship; typical research activities include focus group discussion, expert interviews, on site visits, on-site interviews, document analysis.

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20. Tailoring FQM-systems to small and medium sized companies First supervisor: Geoffrey Hagelaar Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: Yes Recommended courses: BMO MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open: to 1-2 students

Problem description Food quality management systems have a tendency to be designed and to actually develop into a conglomerate of rules, norms and measurements, including training, tasks and responsibilities throughout the organisation and related to a managerial and technological infrastructure. Specialised knowledge is needed to develop and implement systems. Specific measurement instruments, databases, communication channels are needed to operate the systems. From this point of view one can assume that food quality management-systems are developed for the bigger companies which have the ability and capacity to deal with all these presumed managerial and technological conditions. However, the majority of companies is not big, but is a small or medium sized enterprise (SME). Those kinds of companies are in a certain sense the mirror image of bigger companies. The organisation is rather informal, not that much specialisation of employees, different business domains are intertwined (e.g. quality, health and environment), and the director-owner is not only the top management layer but also can be seen regularly on the shop floor in the midst of all the primary operations. Informality and flexibility (results in employees that know a lot about everything) are both a weakness (towards designing and running specialized tasks and systems) and a strength (for changing directions, developing their business). In this setting a FQM-system needs to be implemented as required by stakeholders as consumers, buying companies, (international) governments. So then SMEs need to find a way to develop and implement a system which complies with their own and stakeholders’ requirements and at the same time meet their scarce resources. Ultimately, the goal for big companies as well as for small and medium sized companies, is to produce products with a certain level of quality and safety. However, small and medium sized companies, because of their limited resources and more informal organizational structure, will cope with this task in a different manner. The thesis goal is to deepen the insight in how SMEs cope with the organisational and technical requirements presumed by a FQM-system within their constrained setting. A second objective is to give recommendations on the implementation of FQM-systems in small and medium sized companies.

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21. Introduction of new technologies in food processing companies First supervisor: Geoffrey Hagelaar Building on research of MFQ students: No Possibility to combine with internship: Yes MFQ specialisation: Quality management and entrepreneurship Open: to 1-2 students

Problem description In a company new processing technology is introduced to become more efficient, to reach a higher quality (e.g. higher nutritional value, longer shelf life, more environmental friendly) or to reach a higher market share and/or to access a new market (in which higher and/or other quality attributes are valued). These are all good reasons to implement new processing technology. However, by introducing new technology a company doesn’t necessarily achieve the intended goals. After all, the new technology doesn’t function in a vacuum but in the environment of a company which also has to deal with the activities and inputs of supply chain partners for example their suppliers. This business environment composes of other technologies, the infrastructure and people which need to operate the new technology. From research we know that regularly the intended goals of implementing the new technology are not met. The lacking assimilation of the technology to the business environment in which it meant to function, contributes to this failure. To optimize the assimilation of technology in the business environment, research into factors which influence this assimilation process is then called for.

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III. FOOD AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY

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22. Food fraud risks Supervisors: Saskia van Ruth, Sara Erasmus Building on previous research of: Various MFQ students Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open: to 2 students

Problem description General project: Nowadays, food ingredients are sourced globally with price being the main governing feature. The food supply chain network has become very extensive, which increased its susceptibility to fraud. Rather than looking at specific incidents, a system analysis approach is preferred in order to prevent fraud in the future. Sub-project 1 – Gauging food fraud risks from the public gallery In the past years, a theoretical framework for food fraud vulnerability based on the criminological routine activities theory was developed and the SSAFE food fraud vulnerability self-assessment tool for companies in food supply chains was derived from it (http://www.ssafe-food.org/). This tool has been extensively applied in food businesses across the globe. It focuses on indicators at different environmental layers, i.e. at indicators at both micro-level (related to the business itself and its direct suppliers/customers) and macro-level (related to the extended supply chain, national and international environment). This works well in self-assessments since businesses usually have access to both types of information. However, if third parties wish to profile fraud risks for risk-based sampling and auditing for instance, they basically need to collate the self-assessments of individual companies. This means they need to have access to these self-assessments which comprise sensitive information. Especially authorities/regulators but also auditors and most scholars usually do not have access to that kind of data. Hence, to evaluate the level of food fraud vulnerability across supply chains, e.g. in view of risk-based monitoring or auditing, an adapted approach with emphasis on the macro-level indicators would be very helpful, but is not available yet. Therefore, the aim of this project is to develop a third party framework and subsequent assessment tool to allow third parties to gauge food fraud vulnerabilities in food supply networks. To validate the tool, three organic food supply chains will be examined in the second part of the thesis project. Sub-project 2 – Fraud in food supply chains: An environmental or personal integrity problem? People can be dishonest and non-conforming beings. Research shows that many people lie, cheat and break rules, both in their private and professional lives. However, relatively few people, engage in major transgressive behaviour, such as in gross food crimes. There is still a poor understanding of how and why individuals engage in such crimes. Do they become criminally active in response to a certain business environment or is their crime involvement more a result of intrinsic levels of personal integrity? In other words: Is an individual corrupting because of a poor business culture, or is an individual at the root of the poor culture problem, or perhaps both, do they interact or even enhance each other? What is known for sure, the ethical culture in a food business plays an important role in food fraud occurrence. In this project, you will dive into the interaction between good/poor ethical business cultures and levels of personal integrity of staff in the food industry. The ethical business culture principles and derived questionnaires as presented by Kaptein will be used to determine the nature of the ethical business culture across food businesses. The levels of personal integrity of staff will be examined as well and data from the two sources will be correlated. Finally, the importance of environmental and personal integrity aspects are carefully weighed in order to comprehend their individual and possibly synergetic effects on potential engagement, facilitation or encouragement of food fraud in food supply chains.

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IV. QUALITY DESIGN OF FOODS: PRODUCT, PROCESS, ORGANIZATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN (REDESIGN)

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23. Entrepreneurship and quality Supervisors: Geoffrey Hagelaar Building on previous research of: No Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open: to 2 students

Problem description Following and better yet pro-actively anticipating on consumer preferences seem to be key for entrepreneurs to develop their company’s business. However, the food sector’s reputation seems to be conservative in bringing innovations to the market. At the same time companies in the food sector are pressured by the globalisation of the food market which urges companies to deal with global competitors, consolidation in the domain of retail which urges supplying companies to deal with upscaling and increasing requirements. Hence the contrast between being innovative conservative and innovation induced pressure triggers the question of the strategic weighing of companies being confronted with such a dilemma. Are entrepreneurs led in their decision making by their personal characteristics, their entrepreneurial orientation, the complexity of food processing and the strict requirement of delivering safe and up to the quality standard food stuff, ........ This research topic is introduced to better understand the food entrepreneur and his/her entrepreneurial decisions to develop their business.

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V. CONSUMER-PRODUCT INTERACTIONS IN CONSUMER CHAINS

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24. Snackification from a consumer perspective Supervisors: Ruud Verkerk & Bea Steenbekkers, in connection with a PhD project Building on previous research of: New topic Possibility to combine with internship: To be discussed MFQ specialisation: User-oriented food quality Open: to 2 students

Problem description Our traditional food consumption pattern can be described as three regular meals a day, beverages to satisfy thirst and snacks only consumed in-between meals. Meals traditionally helped structuring the day, providing focal points marking its beginning, ending and transitions. However, the culture of food and beverage consumption is in constant motion, whereas modern eating culture is marked by fragmentation and had led to a change in the three balanced meals. Nowadays snacking is an all-day reality in our society; consumers eat around their schedules rather than scheduling their activities around mealtimes. Often mealtimes are routinely ‘snackified’, especially during the week, where the main nutritional components from main mails now are eaten during some ‘mini meals/snacks’. Whereas traditional snacking was infrequent and very much based around a three-meals-a-day pattern, the more modern snacking patterns look very different. In other words, traditional mealtimes are getting redefined by the trend of snackification. This trend where snacking is becoming the new way of eating, has a substantial impact on consumers’ lives and on the snacking industry. Notwithstanding this impact, there are currently no science-based snacking recommendations available for industry and consumers. While traditionally a ‘snack’ is seen as an unhealthy product, or at least it has an unhealthy connotation. However, consumers are more and more making changes in their snacking behaviour opting for food choices that relate to health, natural, convenient and specific functions, depending on the moment of consumption, their activity, specific motivations etc. This snackification trend and changing behaviour of consumers towards consumption of snacks opens up opportunities for the food industry. Therefore, the objective of this thesis project is to obtain insights in consumers’ snacking behaviour in different consumption situations, and establishing tailored science-based directions and possible guidelines for multiple stakeholders in the snacking domain (eg snacking industry). The research will consist of a literature analysis, development of a conceptual framework, consumer research (qualitative and/or quantitative), development of roadmaps.

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25. Think global, act local: Increasing consumers’ familiarity and choice towards ethnic foods

Supervisors: Lucía Frez Muñoz, Bea Steenbekkers Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisation: User-oriented food quality Open to one student (Dutch student, preferably with a consumer science background participating in the Advanced consumer studies course, YSS-33306)

Problem description Food choice is a task that needs to be undertaken by individuals on a daily basis. In this respect, the understanding of the key drivers involved in consumers food choice is paramount to improve/develop new products that will successfully reflect their needs and requirements. An interesting personal factor involved in this process is product familiarity. It has been linked to several product-related experiences such as knowledge, product availability, consumption frequency, and preparation. A higher familiarity with the product is linked to a higher understanding of its attributes, which is translated to more informed product evaluations. Globalisation has elicited the positioning of ethnic foods (traditional foods from abroad) in markets all around the world allowing a higher diversification. However, many other ethnic foods do not share the same popularity. For this reason, the aim of this research is to determine how product familiarity influences the motives, perceptions and preferences of Dutch female consumers when preparing and consuming traditional/ethnic foods from The Netherlands, Japan, and Italy. Research questions:

1. What motives elicit the preparation at home and/or consumption of traditional/ethnic foods?

2. What are the differences and similarities in the perceptions between consumers having a low and high product familiarity towards the traditional/ethnic foods studied?

3. What are the main contextual factors influencing the acceptability of ethnic foods with low and

high familiarity? Proposed approach: The student will work with online questionnaires and qualitative research techniques (focus groups/in-depth interviews).

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26. Why do we like fat in foods? Studies on fat perception Supervisor: Dieuwerke Bolhuis Building on previous research of food technology and MFQ students Possibility to combine with internship: no MFQ specialisation: User-oriented food quality (interest in sensory science) Open to one student

Problem description Human liking for fats is an evolutionary consequence to select energy-dense foods and essential fatty acids needed for survival. The drawback is that dietary fat is easily overconsumed and considered to be the greatest contributing factor to obesity. Dietary fat is unique in its way that it is perceived by somatosensory (texture), olfactory (odor) and gustatory (taste) sensations. Only little attention has been paid to study the perception of fat, possibly due to the complexness of fat perception as multiple sensory pathways are included. Despite these three sensory pathways, humans have a poor perception of fattiness and therefore a weak awareness of fat content in food. Why is fat so appealing while we only have a poor perception of fat? The impact of fat on taste, odour, and textural cues and their interactions on food liking and food intake has not been systematically investigated. Unravelling the multisensory pathways explaining the attraction to high-fat foods may help food product development to design foods with lower fat contents maintaining palatability. Studies that will be executed contain sensory experiments (possibly also oral processing or eating behaviour), so therefore a strong interest in sensory science is recommended.

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27. Substituting meat and the role of context Building on the research of PhD project: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: User-oriented food quality, Quality control and assurance Open: to 1-2 students Supervisors: Pieternel Luning (FQD); Hanneke Elzerman (Hogeschool van Hall Larenstein) Fluency in Dutch is required for this project.

Problem description

The substantial environmental impact of our food consumption and food production systems has become clear over the last decades. Especially, the production of meat puts a heavy burden on the environment. Not only researchers but also policymakers now plead for a shift in our dietary behaviour towards a more plant-based diet. In anticipation of this urgent need, numerous meat substitutes have been launched on the market in the last decades. However, the adoption of meat substitutes is slow, and many products are not yet satisfying consumer demands, as texture and taste issues still occur. Nevertheless, the market of meat substitutes has been growing since the first introductions of soy-based products, and later Quorn, Valess, ‘Vegetarische Slager, etc. Many studies on meat substitutes focused mainly on the product characteristics using sensory tests and consumer studies. However, previous research indicated that the context in which meat substitutes are eaten can influence the acceptance of these products. Context includes the social or situational context (where, when, how, with whom the food is eaten, etc.) or the meal context (i.e. which other foods accompany the food product when it is eaten). In the past two years, several MSc students worked on the situational appropriateness of meat substitutes, by conducting an online survey and in-depth interviews. However, several questions are still unanswered in the field of consumer acceptance of meat substitutes and the role of contextual factors. This year there will be two different MSc projects:

1. Exploring the role of meal context in the perception of sensory properties of meat substitutes. In this project, a sensory panel will evaluate the sensory properties of several meat substitutes, when eaten with or without a meal context (sauce). The purpose of this study is to investigate if the meal context influences the perception of sensory properties of meat substitutes.

2. Further investigating consumers’ motives behind the appropriateness of meat substitutes in a situational context. In other words, why does one product fit better in a particular social/situational context than another product (e.g. vegetarian stir fry pieces vs. chicken pieces when preparing dinner with friends, etc.)?

The projects will include a semi-structured literature search (on amongst others, factors influencing acceptance of meat substitutes, the role of context, changes in consumption trends, etc.), recruitment, setting-up sensory panel and conducting the sensory tests (project 1), development and conducting a survey (project 2), data analysis, and reporting. The topic will be further defined at the start of the project depending on the students’ background and interest.

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28. Assessing drivers and barriers for hygienic behaviour in households varying in socio-economic characteristics with the engagement of citizens in the research Supervisors: Pieternel Luning (FQD), Bea Steenbekkers (FQD) Building on previous research: yes Possibility to combine with internship: possible MFQ specialisation: User-oriented food quality Open to one student

Problem description Attention to food safety and hygiene is common in the food industry as they need to comply with legal requirements regarding food safety management systems. Therefore, food safety and hygiene are commonly well assured up to consumer purchase at the retail. After purchase, consumers are responsible for hygiene in handling, preparation, serving and storing of the foods. However, analysis of foodborne outbreaks suggested that there are potential risky behaviours in the domestic environment that can lead to food safety problems. Particularly the occurrence of Campylobacter contamination is a serious threat to human health. Worldwide, Campylobacter spp. is one of the leading causes of bacterial human gastroenteritis and the most prevalent zoonotic disease in the European Union. Most studies focused on mitigating the risk of Campylobacter contamination at food processing and to a lesser extent at farming, but few studies focused on the domestic context. In a recent research proposal, among other things, they identified the need to gain an understanding of risky hygiene behaviours at households, and possible household factors and family member motives that could play a role. Such insights are necessary to develop behavioural-based interventions targeting consumers in their domestic context to mitigate the risk of kitchen cross-contamination of Campylobacter. Furthermore, the project advocated the use of citizen science principles to enhance the engagement of citizens in research to raise food hygiene awareness and develop more tailored interventions. The social scientist Alan Irwin (1995) introduced the concept of citizen science described in two dimensions of the relationship between citizens and science: 1) that science should be responsive to citizens’ concerns and needs; and 2) that citizens themselves could produce reliable scientific knowledge. The principal idea is to develop a broad scientific mindset and/or encourage democratic participation, which, among other things, will allow citizens to know what to do and why in case of forthcoming pandemics. The thesis aims at investigating risky hygiene behaviour that can lead to an increased chance of Campylobacter cross-contamination in different households varying in socio-economic characteristics with the engagement of citizens. The thesis builds further on two explorative studies done in 2020-2021. The study will be further demarcated upon the start of the thesis.

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VI. PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF NOVEL PROTEIN FOODS e.g. INSECTS

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29. Embedding novel protein sources in food supply chains under extraordinary circumstances Supervisors: Catriona Lakemond and Geoffrey Hagelaar Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open to one student

Problem description In 2020 the Corona crisis developed itself as a global health crisis leading to closure of borders with an immediate, temporarily effect on the access to certain food products in Dutch supermarkets. Next to a pandemic situation one could also think of other potential situations with an effect on food supply, as a long drought, flooding’s, nuclear disasters, epidemics in the animal sector, political conflicts and war. These can have a direct effect on food security. Also indirect effects can be expected as a result of significant economic stresses, e.g. linked to the COVID-19 related lockdown measures. Food chains are often internationally organized, with many import and export practises, that can be disrupted in crisis situations. The LEI performed in 2013 a theoretical exercise to see whether the Dutch agricultural sector would be able to produce enough food for Dutch population under exceptional crisis conditions. The study was based on a worst case scenario, namely an autarky situation, in which import and export were no longer possible. Although the study showed that the Dutch agricultural sector in such a situation is still capable of feeding the Dutch, the transition from the current situation to one of autarky would require very substantial changes to both agricultural production and the national diet. The most striking differences compared with the current situation are the limited consumption of grain products (including bread), the complete absence of pork and the relative prominence of potatoes, chicken, and eggs in the diet. The absence of pork is a result of maximizing meat production using the minimum amount of land (chickens use less land). Although the domestic grain production is in principle enough to meet the demand for bread, it will not cover what is used as animal feed as well. Alternative upcoming novel protein sources have not been taken into account in this research. Some examples are algae, quorn (mycoproteins), and insects. Insects for example have potential because they are nutritious, easily reared requiring minimum space, and can help limitation of the environmental footprint. In this research the potential contribution of novel protein sources to food security in an autarky situation will be studied along with the role of policy makers with relation to the resilience and capabilities of a countries food system. The study will be performed with a focus on small and medium sized enterprises, short local food chains and appropriate processing to reach the desired shelf life while upkeeping the nutritional properties. Food security will be studied in terms of food availability and food access.

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30. Assessing the potential for upscaling production of emerging novel protein sources: a chain perspective Supervisors: Catriona Lakemond and Geoffrey Hagelaar Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open to one student

Problem description The increasingly growing population puts great pressure for sustainable food production. Environmental and ethical concerns of the intensive traditional livestock production to feed the world population have been pointing out for the need to develop production for alternative supply of animal protein. Therefore a range of alternative protein sources are upcoming. They range from more traditional ones like pulses (e.g. beans), to novel ones like algae, quorn, cultured meat, and insects. Insects are for example a potential alternative because they are nutritious, easily reared requiring minimum space, and can help limitation of the environmental footprint. However, to have a significant impact on the environment, the production of insects needs to be on a large scale and barriers such as consumer acceptance and requirements for the production and commercialization of these products need to be addressed. In previous MSc work the developing insect chain was extensively studied. The main bottlenecks for the expansion of large scale production of insects as human food were found to be lack of close collaboration between partners, the relationship with customers/consumers, and the lack of appropriate technical knowledge in insect rearing and processing. In general, increasing the production and how to use novel proteins for food applications is part of building new protein value chains. The impact of these value chains depends entirely on the ability to develop successful food products/protein rich ingredients and to organize the necessary production chain in such a way that good quality products and ingredients are available and finally can reach the consumer. The current research will therefore investigate the similarities and differences of potential successful strategies with respect to the developing chains of various novel proteins. The research will include small and medium sized enterprises.

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31. Design of insect supply chains in developing countries Supervisors: Catriona Lakemond and Geoffrey Hagelaar Building on research of MFQ students: Yes Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisations: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open to one student

Problem description The world’s growing population and food securities challenges have necessitated the need for using sustainable natural resources. Consumption of insects is a traditional practice since time immemorial in most African, Asian and South American countries. However, the potential contribution of edible insects to food security in these countries is under threat. Adoption of western food habits, especially in urban areas, has caused a decline in the consumption of edible insects as was clear from a case study done in Zimbabwe. The low insect consumption level in urban areas due to restricted availability limits the actual contribution to food security. Further insect consumption is limited due to seasonal availability, since the insects are often harvested from the wild in developing countries. This justifies the need to improve edible insects availability in all seasons, especially in urban areas through developing reliable value chains, insect farming and processing. The research will focus on potential successful strategies to design such insect supply chains. Aspects that will be taken along in the research are consumer orientation, (technical) knowledge with respect to insect harvesting and processing, insect farming and collaboration between potential partners in such a chain. We will make use of the PPPlab scaling tool, with technological and managerial ingredients for scaling.

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VII. FOOD QUALITY AND LOGISTICS MODELLING

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32. Designing and managing (circular) food and biobased supply chains (ORL theme 1) Supervisors: Argyris Kanellopoulos / Renzo Akkerman / Frits Claassen (all ORL) Building on previous research of: - Possibility to combine with internship: - MFQ specialisation: Quality and food logistics (ORL-thesis code) Open to: 10 students

Problem description The pressure on natural resources is increasing and so is the need for more sustainable value networks. Therefore, the Operations Research and Logistics group works on improving and optimizing the logistical structures of supply chains and explores new food processing opportunities, logistics management concepts, waste and by-product valorisation options, and supply chain designs for circular business models. Concrete thesis topics in this cluster include (but are not limited to):

- Designing efficient veal supply chains: In improving the logistical structure of veal supply chains, how can we extend a multi-objective optimization model for veal supply chains to account for multiple dimensions of sustainability (i.e. economic, environmental and animal health objectives)?

- Designing the food quality-oriented supply chains of olives and olive oil: A quality driven olive (oil) supply chain results in higher prices for both producer and consumer: designing such quality driven chains requires restructuring, reorganization and alternative logistical configurations. Can we develop decision support tools to enable quantitative evaluation of such alternative structures for quality driven olive (oil) chains?

- Collaborative design for biobased value networks: How can we design integrated, adaptive biobased multi-product supply chain networks? What are the main enables/barriers for collaboration in biobased supply chain networks and how can we promote the cross-chain collaboration to achieve integrated design and operation of a multi-product biobased network?

- Designing sustainable biomass supply chains: Natural resources become scarce: for this reason, Resource Use Efficiency (RUE) of biomass and agri-food supply chains is topping agendas of policymakers and scientists. Current production and processing practices should be evaluated and revisited. Innovative technologies can improve valorisation of biomass and residues, but these alternatives should be explored at different links of the chain. We seek to develop decision support tools that can be used to evaluate quantitatively alternative logistical structures of the Dutch biomass supply chain.

- A supply chain perspective on circular economy: In order to understand and support company decisions with regard to their contribution(s) to the transition to a circular economy, we execute a literature review and assess current modelling approached related to circular agriculture with regards to their scope and suitability to analyse decision-making on the company of supply chain level.

- Exploring alternative modelling techniques in optimization problems in logistics - Integrating food quality in quantitative supply chain management approaches

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33. Managing disruptions in food and biobased supply chains (ORL theme 2) Supervisors: Renzo Akkerman / Sander de Leeuw / Rene Haijema (all ORL) Building on previous research of: - Possibility to combine with internship: - MFQ specialisation: Quality and food logistics (ORL-thesis code) Open to: 10 students

Problem description Suddenly, when the corona crisis hit in, the vulnerability of (global) food supply chains became increasingly apparent. This time, it was not only from an (inter)national perspective that the concept of ‘food security’ gained true attention (remember the ‘hoarding’ behaviour of households). The Operations Research and Logistics group contributes to the debate on vulnerability and resilience of (food) supply chains by working on on resilient food supply chain designs, accurate planning approaches for supply chain flexibility and designing assessments of supply chain resilience. Concrete thesis topics in this cluster include (but are not limited to): Mitigation strategies and data resolution management in food supply chains after disruptions: When corona hit the Netherlands, plenty of Dutch retailers found themselves struggling constructing viable reorder policies. In major disruptions like these, which data accuracy (in terms of resolution, e.g. hourly, bi-hourly, weekly, daily) is needed in order to come to viable reorder policies? What collaboration models between chain partners are needed in these kind of disruptions?

Related literature:

Akkerman, R., Haijema, R., Kunz, M. C., de Leeuw, S., Nguyen, Q. V., Schellekens, H. A., & van der Stelt, G. M. (2021). Een supply chain resilience perspectief op de Nederlandse voedselketen tijdens de Corona crisis. TKI Dinalog-Dutch Institute for Advanced Logistics.

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34. Dietary optimization and sustainable supply chain design (ORL theme 3) Supervisors: Argyris Kanellopoulos / Joke van Lemmen (ORL) Building on previous research of: - Possibility to combine with internship: - MFQ specialisation: Quality and food logistics (ORL-thesis code) Open to: 10 students

Problem description The increasing need for food and nutrition security for all kinds of consumer groups, and the increasing demand for healthy and sustainable food production challenges actors in the supply chain. The Operations Research and Logistics group works on optimizing diet compositions, and investigates effects of protein transition on supply chain designs. We are e.g. interested in the trade-off between dietary choices and sustainable supply chain design. Concrete examples within this cluster include:

Modelling sustainable, healthy, affordable and preferable (SHARP) diets: There is an increasing demand to redefine “optimal diets” and redesign the structure and management of agri-food supply chains. In this project we aim to identify Sustainable, Healthy, Affordable, Reliable and Preferable (SHARP) diets and to evaluate the consequences of these SHARP diets on the structure of current agri-food supply chains.

To achieve these goals we develop mathematical decision support models which combines requirements regarding performance indicators and generate diets that meet specific requirement that are feasible within various socio-economic and biophysical environments. To develop such decision support tools advanced insights in the concept of sustainability, healthiness and preferability of current and future food products are required. There is a need for students to review the current literature on these topics and develop the basic analytical model. Students can focus on different elements of the SHARP diet model. Relevant questions are: how to make a model that generates a “proper” meal? what do consumers “prefer” to eat? how to define what is a proper and what is a preferable diet? how to define the similarity between different food items so that a consumer has a certain degree of freedom of choice (e.g. rice instead of potatoes)? how to predict customer’s future dietary choices? To address these questions student can review and explore existing techniques while there are plenty of possibilities for very interesting modelling assignments.

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35. Assortment planning to minimize waste (ORL theme 5) Supervisors: Renzo Akkerman / Rene Haijema / Karin Pauls (all ORL) Building on previous research of: - Possibility to combine with internship: - MFQ specialisation: Quality and food logistics (ORL-thesis code) Open to: 10 students

Problem description FAO reports food waste to exceed 30% of total food production. That number should be significantly decreased. The Operations Research and Logistics group approaches the problem of food waste in different ways: by (quantitatively) assessing interesting valorisation options for waste streams and designing circular food supply chains that allow for reuse, the reported number of ‘waste’ can be significantly improved. But first and foremost, by studying reorder and assortment planning policies at different actors throughout the supply chain, our group seeks to reduce the reported number of 30%. At our group, we have plenty of research options for students that are interested in e.g. exploring and modelling perishable inventory models, cold-chain optimization, and warehouse management. Related literature:

Buisman, M. E., Haijema, R., & Bloemhof-Ruwaard, J. M. (2016, August). Dynamic pricing and dynamic shelf life to reduce (perishable) food waste at retailers. In Book of Abstracts (p. 112).

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VIII. FOOD QUALITY AND LAW

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36. Private certification schemes Supervisor: Alessia S. D’Amico Building on previous research of: No Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisation: Any Open: to 3 students

Problem description Next to traditional governmental regulation, private food standards (such as UTZ, MSC, GlobalGAP) have emerged as an important mode of governance in food supply chains, addressing environmental, social, ethical, quality and/or safety characteristics of foodstuffs. Private schemes can vary significantly and can function at different levels of the food supply chain; they can cover all or part of the food supply chain and affect all sectors or just single market segments. They can operate at business to business or business to consumer level. Schemes may attest compliance with provisions laid down by governmental authorities (baseline) or they can add criteria which go beyond the legal requirements (above baseline). The fact is that private food standard setters are emerging as de-factor regulators, calling for a fresh view on issues such as legitimacy, accountability and enforcement.

Students can approach this topic from three different angles: The first thesis is centred on the issue that private food standards may not always provide useful, intelligible or verifiable information to the consumer. EU consumer information and labelling rules require that the labelling, advertising and presentation of food must not be such as it could mislead a purchaser to a material degree. However, besides the Commission’s best practice guidelines for voluntary certification schemes for agricultural products and foodstuff, these schemes are not currently regulated. Therefore, the core question of this research project is how public regulation interacts with and ought to govern private initiatives in order to safeguard consumer interests. The second thesis explores the advantages and disadvantages of ‘certification marks’, a relatively new intellectual property right at EU level. What are the conditions, the first experiences with this new legal institution and how can we evaluate its potential in the food sector and voluntary certification schemes? The third thesis looks at the potential of private food standards for a sustainable transition. The application of information-based tools alters consumers’ current consumption practices in order to achieve a transition towards healthier and more sustainable food systems. However, attempts at steering practices through the use of information are often ineffective; thus, the proposed research focuses on the question of how and under what conditions information- based tools can be effective. Insights will be based on an improved understanding of consumer and business practices, examined in the light of EU consumer and food information law.

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37. EU Quality schemes Supervisor: Alessia S. D’Amico Building on previous research of: No Possibility to combine with internship: No MFQ specialisation: Any Open to one student

Problem description A geographical indication (GI) is a sign that identifies a product as originating from a particular source which gives that product a special characteristic (reputation, quality or other). EU quality policy aims at protecting the names of specific products to promote their unique characteristics, linked to their geographical origin as well as traditional know-how. Product names can be granted with a GI if they have a specific link to the place where they are made. Registered names are protected and can only be used by producers who satisfy the GIs requirements.

The GI recognition is meant to enable consumers to trust and distinguish quality products, while helping producers to market their products better and demand higher prices, and protecting local traditions and cultural practices. The thesis will focus on whether EU quality schemes adequately protect consumer interests and enable consumers to make informed choices. In answering this question, it will be relevant to reflect upon the connection between quality and origin and whether consumers receive accurate information in relation to the meaning and role of GIs. Legal bases on which to build this research are the Regulation on EU Quality Schemes as well as EU consumer and food information law.

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38. Food safety and corporate human rights due diligence in the European Union Supervisor: Nadia Bernaz or Chiara Macchi Building on previous research of: N/A Possibility to combine with internship: To be discussed MFQ specialisation: Quality control and assurance, Quality management and entrepreneurship Open to one student

Problem description Inadequate food safety systems have human rights implications, on the right to food and the right to health in particular. In the past twenty years, human rights standards for corporations have been developed at the international level, in the form of soft law instruments. Specifically, under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011), companies should: (1) Adopt a human rights policy; (2) Carry out a human rights due diligence process (HRDD) to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their impact on human rights; (3) Adopt processes to enable the remediation of human rights impacts they cause or to which they contribute. In 2021, the EU Commission will propose a new Directive on Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence, thus transforming HRDD into a binding process for EU companies. This recent development will have implications also for food companies, and may open up possibilities for them to view food safety as a human rights issue. This research project is about looking at food safety from a different perspective to explore how it fits within this novel human rights framework.

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39. Private sustainability initiatives Supervisor: Stavros Makris Building on previous research of: No Possibility to combine with internship: To be dscussed MFQ specialisation: Any Open to 1 student

Problem description The Dutch government is trying to stimulate public-private forms of co-operation as indicated in the ‘Chicken of Tomorrow’ case. Such private sustainability initiatives could bear several benefits (e.g. promote sustainability or environmental objectives) and, thereby, complement or stimulate legislator’s policies to healthier and more sustainable food. Nonetheless, this institutional drive towards more self- and co-regulation has received significant push-back from the Dutch competition authority (ACM) as such private sustainability initiatives may be incompatible with European and Dutch competition law. Private sustainability initiatives may reduce competition (e.g. ‘joint fair trade’ standards under which certain products are no longer offered in the market), disguise greenwashing or favour the industry implementing them than having any positive social welfare impact. To address this issue ACM has issued a set of Guidelines explaining in detail how competition law is applied to sustainability agreements made between undertakings. Has this document stimulated private sustainability initiatives pertaining food in the Netherlands? Does it offer a better response to the problem of private sustainability initiatives compared to the European Commission’s approach?