Integrating the Internet of Things in the halal food supply chain: A systematic literature review and research agenda

To address consumers’ concerns regarding food integrity, halal food businesses need to rethink their conventional supply chains and leverage new technologies. The emergence and proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) - the use of interconnected devices, sensors, and technologies to orchestrate, monitor, and optimize supply chain processes - holds innovative potentials for the halal food supply chain (HFSC). Despite the growing popularity in supply chain management and logistics, the potentials and challenges of IoT in the HFSC remain – unexplored and further research is required . Therefore, the goal of this paper is to address this knowledge gap and review IoT research within the context of HFSCs. To begin, over seventy-three (73) papers were analyzed using both bibliometric techniques and in-depth content analysis. The results reveal that IoT offers five major benefits for the HFSC; namely, traceability of products, enhancement of supply chain efficiencies, facilitation of livestock management, authentication of foods’ halal status, and monitoring of halal certifications. Several challenges were identified, including the technical limitations of IoT devices, technological immaturity, lack of user acceptance, and cost and regulatory barriers. The study's findings provide deeper insight into the current state of IoT research in the halal food literature, its development, challenges and future research avenues for scholars, policy makers and the HFSC community.