Abstract: To reduce processing energy consumption of quick-frozen catfish fillets and mitigate the quality deterioration during frozen storage, this study developed a multi-component immersion solution and investigated the effects of pre-cooling catfish fillets with immersion prior to liquid nitrogen freezing on processing energy consumption and frozen storage quality. The results indicated the cooling rate of the immersion pre-cooling method was significantly higher than that of traditional cold storage at 4 ℃ (P<0.05), with the time reduced by 2.25 hours as the central temperature of the catfish fillets decreased to 5~6 ℃. At the same pre-cooling endpoint temperature, cold storage pre-cooling consumed 3.5 times more electricity than the immersion pre-cooling samples. During liquid nitrogen freezing, the nitrogen consumption for the immersion pre-cooling group cooled to 0~1 ℃ was significantly lower than the non-precooled samples (P<0.05). Histological analysis revealed that pre-cooling, especially immersion pre-cooling resulted in denser fish tissue. During the period of freezing storage, all quality indicators declined, however, the immersion precooling group exhibited a slow rate of color change in catfish fillets, with significantly smaller reductions in hardness, elasticity, and chewiness compared to the non-precooled group (P<0.05). The water-holding capacity loss was reduced by 36.58%, 57.23%, and 62.39% in the cold storage pre-cooling, immersion pre-cooling (5~6 ℃), and immersion precooling (0~1 ℃) groups, respectively, compared with the non-precooled group. Immersion pre-cooling also effectively mitigated pH increases in catfish fillets. The thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) content in the immersion pre-cooling to 0~1 ℃ group were 6.45% and 4.61% lower than those in the non-precooled group, respectively. In summary, pre-cooling, particularly immersion pre-cooling, effectively inhibits texture deterioration and oxidative degradation during frozen storage while reducing processing energy consumption.