infonet-economy

There is growing evidence that a significant share of global food is thrown away, with concomitant detrimental repercussions for sustainability: Food production is linked to land conversion and biodiversity loss, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, water and pesticide use. To reduce food waste is consequently a key sustainability challenge for the foodservices industry. This article studies how foodservices can profit from innovations in waste management. It is based on the evaluation of best practices that combine strategic dimensions of waste management with practice-driven initiatives, including incremental (operational and technological) and radical innovations. The paper concludes that there exist a wide range of waste management initiatives, and that embracing these has positive economic and environmental outcomes for the foodservice sector.