From Smart Food Waste Management to Epistemic Governance: A Theory-Driven Review Through the Sextuple Helix Innovation Framework

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly transforming food waste management from operational optimisation towards knowledge-intensive coordination, adaptive decision-making, and collaborative sustainability governance. While existing reviews predominantly examine AI applications from technological or performance-oriented perspectives, comparatively little attention has been paid to how AI reshapes knowledge production and governance. This study investigates the evolving role of AI through the Sextuple Helix Innovation (SHI) framework, which conceptualises AI as an emerging epistemic participant in sustainability-oriented innovation ecosystems. A theory-driven qualitative literature review was conducted using a deductive coding framework derived from innovation theory, socio-technical systems, digital sustainability transitions, and algorithmic governance. Twenty-eight peer-reviewed studies were analysed according to two dimensions: Role of AI and Knowledge Exchange. The findings reveal a progression from Operational AI to Coordinative AI to Epistemic AI, in which AI increasingly contributes to recursive knowledge production and governance. Importantly, technological capability and governance maturity evolve along partially independent trajectories. The study extends the Quintuple Helix Innovation Model, introduces a transferable analytical framework, and provides a governance-oriented perspective for the sustainable design of AI-enabled food waste management as integrated socio-technical systems advancing prevention, redistribution, and other higher-value interventions within the food waste hierarchy.