Extenuating Food Integrity Risk through Supply Chain Integration: The Case of Halal Food

Effects of food scandals on religious belief, human health and even on causes of death indicate that firms and consumers are vulnerable to integrity risks in the global supply chain. Mitigating the integrity risk and maintaining the credence quality products like halal food is very challenging, if not impossible. Our aim in this research is to show that supply chain integration can mitigate the halal food integrity risk. To illustrate this idea, we have conducted case studies and interviews in seven Malaysian chicken supply chain focal firms. We unpack the halal integrity risks along the supply chain, such as production risk, raw material risk, food security risk, outsourcing practices risk, service risk, and logistics risk. The research argues that supply chain integration, such as internal integration and external integration practices, could minimize the halal integrity risk. The advantages of supply chain integration in mitigating the halal integrity risk are also highlighted in this paper.