State of the art of technology in the food sector value chain towards the IoT

The food sector is challenged to provide safe and qualitative food to consumers at affordable price and to feed appropriately increasing population using natural resources, like soil and water, in a sustainable way. Consumers awareness about food origin, nutritional and wellness properties, attention to processed meals ingredients, due to health issues, and requests of new customized portions formats and receipts, related to habits changes, are also demanding trends in the sector. Several technologies can help to address those responsibilities of efficient, safe and environmental respectful production, and strict communication and connection with the consumers. This paper provides a state of the art of smart and other emerging technologies framed in the whole food supply-chain, to create a picture of the added value that the technology can bring to the sector. Moreover, the evolutions towards the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm adoption are presented.