Enhancing Frozen Food Production Circularity with Systematic Innovation

Wan Chiao Chen, Hsin Rau () and Imam Santoso
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Wan Chiao Chen: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan City 32023, Taiwan
Hsin Rau: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan City 32023, Taiwan
Imam Santoso: Department of Agroindustrial Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Brawijaya University, Malang 64145, Indonesia

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-21

Abstract: The frozen food industry faces growing pressure for sustainability, requiring significant reductions in energy consumption and environmental impact. A critical, yet often overlooked, challenge is the temperature differential between production equipment and the environment, which causes energy inefficiencies, material losses, and quality degradation. Despite its significant influence on production performance and environmental burden, this issue has received limited attention in existing studies. To address this gap, this study aims to develop a systematic innovation framework that integrates the TRIZ-based system interaction analysis, a knowledge base of patented and expert-derived solutions, and Quality Function Deployment to identify root causes and design effective circular strategies. The proposed framework is applied to a frozen fish processing case study, where analysis reveals temperature variation as the dominant bottleneck. The strategy embeds dynamic, microscale adaptability into freezing equipment, which reduces the environmental impact of temperature fluctuations, improves energy efficiency, and cuts material waste. These results demonstrate the feasibility, scalability, and innovation potential of the approach, offering a structured methodology for advancing circularity, resilience, and eco-efficiency in frozen food processing systems.

Keywords: circular economy; frozen food processing; temperature management; TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving); quality function deployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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