A preventive approach to risk management in global fruit and vegetable supply chains

The aim of this empirical study was to create a concept for the implementation of a proactive risk management system in global value-added chains for fruit and vegetables. The focus was to develop a proposal for the categorisation of risks, as well as the systematisation of preventive failure identification and evaluation. This paper presents a general process model of how the quality management tool "Failure Mode and Effects Analysis" (FMEA) can be used for the implementation of preventive measures in the international food trade. Furthermore, a proposal was developed for using existing information from food control databases of the competent public authorities in supplier countries as the initial guidelines for developing supplier and risk assessment procedures.