Food waste management in the hospitality sector: a systematic review of the strategies and barriers
Résumé
The hospitality industry is a major source of food waste (FW) worldwide. This makes it harder to achieve global development goals such as SDG 2 (ending hunger), SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production), and SDG 13 (climate action). Given the negative impacts of FW, there is growing pressure for sustainability in the hospitality sector. Research on FW and food waste management (FWM) in the hospitality sector remains limited, geographically uneven, and divergent, with a notable lack of rigorous academic studies that synthesize findings on FWM in this sector. This study conducts a systematic review of the literature, using the PRISMA framework to synthesise findings on FWM practices and challenges in the sector at a global level. Peer-reviewed articles were extracted from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The findings show that procurement and inventory-based interventions dominated the pre-kitchen stage of FWM, suggesting that early-stage planning plays a decisive role in shaping downstream waste outcomes. In the kitchen stage, there is a strong emphasis on food portion and production control, indicating that kitchen operations focus on controlling food preparation processes and improving resource efficiency. Popular post-kitchen practices, such as composting and food donation, highlight the growing adoption of circular-economy principles within the sector. The study’s results further indicate that effective FWM requires coordinated implementation across all phases of food service delivery, rather than fragmented adoption of singular FWM practices. The study recommends that the hospitality sector develop FWM guidelines and regularly equip kitchen staff to follow them, thereby reducing FW. There is a need to adopt technological innovations in kitchen operations to measure and track the source and daily waste volumes. Future studies should prioritise research in understudied regions, particularly in developing countries, to address existing geographical gaps in FW and FWM research and conduct comparative studies across different hospitality players to identify transferable, and scalable best practices. Therefore, by synthesising fragmented global evidence on FWM practices, this systematic literature review provides a comprehensive understanding of contemporary FWM strategies, identifies critical policy gaps, and offers insights to guide future research on FWM and sustainable FWM practices in the hospitality sector. Systematic review registration https://www.prisma-statement.org/ .
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