Challenges for circular economy adoption in sustainable food supply chains

Abstract

This study seeks to identify challenging factors to the adoption of the circular economy in the food supply chain. A total of 17 challenging factors have been identified via a systematic literature review. The challenging factors were grouped into 6 categories: economic, social, institutional, technological and informational, supply chain, and organizational. To prioritize the challenging factors based on literature importance, a literature frequency analysis method was utilized. The possibility of misestimations in challenges ranking that result from frequency analysis is eliminated by employing an article-level research citation metric of Field-Weighted Citation Impact. The findings reveal that the three most critical challenges to adopting circular economy in the food supply chain are cost efficiency consideration, less enforcement of legislation and regulations, and lack of long-term shared vision among stakeholders. The findings will help managers, decision-makers, practitioners, and governments to formulate policies and strategies to effectively implement circular practices in the food industry.