Meat cutters have long since claimed that knife forces increase with lower meat temperatures. This study was performed to find out what effects the meat temperature has on cutting forces. In addition, the same issue was addressed for pure fat. One hundred and forty four samples of lean meat and of fat respectively were collected and put overnight inone of three refrigerators with temperatures 2, 7 and 12°C, 48 in each. These samples were cut while measuring cutting forces in an Anago KST Sharpness Analyzer machine. The results show that there were no significant differences in knife forces concerning lean meat at the three temperatures. However, the force in pure fat at 2°C was significantly increased by 30% compared to the other temperatures. The forces in fat were generally three times higher than for lean meat, regardlessof temperature.

Background: 

Industry 4.0 technologies are expected to play an important role in the near future. Among these, blockchain technology is in the spotlight and recognized to be revolutionary within the agri-food industry and its supply chains. However, the technology and its adoption is in an early phase and involves several challenges for agri-food organizations. Given its nascent nature, academic research is scarce and a need for research of blockchain technology adoption in different contexts has been identified. 

Purpose: 

The purpose of this thesis is therefore to analyze the reasoning behind Swedish agri-food organizations’ decisions to adopt or reject blockchain technology as well as their approach to its adoption in their supply chains. 

Method: 

A qualitative research design with an inductive approach was applied, where the primary data was gathered through 9 semi-structured interviews with agri-food organizations and experienced individuals within the field. 

Conclusion: 

The findings show that trustworthiness is the main goal and driver of blockchain technology adoption and identified several secondary reasons for adoption. The research also specifies challenges which act as reasons for rejection as well as two-edged critical factors affecting adoption decisions. Further, Swedish agri-food organizations were recognized to be in an immature adoption phase and hence two main approaches to blockchain adoption, proactive and pending, were determined. Based on these findings, the BAP framework visualizing the blockchain adoption process was developed. 

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how food start-ups (FS) can make their primary food packaging (PFP) more eco-friendly by identifying and evaluating the performance of suited packaging alternative. The purpose was fulfilled by answering the three research questions: 

RQ1) How to assess the eco-friendliness of PFP?

RQ2) Which are areas of improvement in environmental performance?

RQ3) What are the differences in performance across similar PFP’s? 

Methods: To answer the research questions both the literature review and empirical data was required. The literature study was conducted to gather relevant theories about primary food packaging in food start-ups. To get the required empirical data, a single case study was conducted at a case company that suited the subject. The case study consisted of multiple interviews and document study. This enabled for an analysis in the form of pattern matching in order to answer the research questions and achieve the purpose. 

Findings: The Study found that to assess the PFP that have direct impact on the environment the functional features and the environmental framework play a central role in the eco- friendliness of PFPs which analyzed the requirements for the PFP and a multi criteria decision making approach for the environmental assessment for the Green-PE. The stakeholder expectations were found by analyzing the criterion for the PFP. In addition, a comparison for an eco-friendlier alternative was analyzed with the current Green-PE to justify the performance for the PFP in FS. 

Implications: The study results present practical implications with assessing the current Green-PE and evaluating the gaps for improvement areas, while also comparing similar PFP which is an eco-friendlier option for food packaging start-ups. As there has been no general theoretical implications, the findings of the thesis can be used as a basis for deeper insights into the subject through more extensive research. 

Delimitations & Scope: The focus was to identify and evaluate the current PFP environmental impact and not the other aspects of the life cycle assessment since the scope was limited. Also, a single case study was used rather than multiple case studies to analyze the eco-friendliness for PEPs.