An Overview of the Design of Experiment Workflow

Abstract

Design of Experiments as a subfield of statistics has its origins trying to understand systems and making decisions. In the context of food supply chains where agricultural and farm systems, packaging and processing plants, cold chains and food logistics, product design, warehousing, retailing, among many other steps and actors, come together to produce safe, healthy, nutritious, reliable, affordable, and sustainable food products. At each stage, many problems have to be solved and decisions have to be made from agricultural practices, scheduling, land use, costing, and pricing, at the farm and orchard level. A general outline is presented on the general workflow; illustrated through examples and a current review of some of the applications of design of experiments in the context of food production help provide some directives and guidelines. Global trends and challenges that influence both the food industry and the practice of design of experiments are discussed.