TRIZ Evolution Trends as an Approach for Predicting the Future Development of the Technological Systems in the Food Industry

Innovation is regarded as a vital element for the development of new technologies to create a competitive advantage in the food industry. The innovation process in the food companies is principally driven by two strategies: the technological change (technology push) and the market orientation (market pull). Although both strategies provide the elements to encourage innovation, they can be only applied to solve specific problems or needs that are easily identified limiting their applicability. A new alternative strategy to innovate is to try to anticipate the future developments of technological food systems from an evolutionary perspective based on the TRIZ Evolution Trends (TETs). Thus, to improve the innovation process in the food industry, the present research proposes to combine elements of the TRIZ Evolution Trends, the technology push and the market pull strategies to create an approach to suggest recommendation of the most favorable transformation to improve or develop technological food systems. An example is presented to demonstrate the usefulness of this approach.