Sustainable food waste management strategies in restaurants: A transition to a Circular economy

Although research on food waste (FW) issue has increased since the launch of United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 advocating for FW reduction and food loss (FL) by 2030, specifically in the retail and consumption. There is still a significant practice and implementation gap that help to reduce and manage FW in restaurants. This research seeks to understand the attitudes and behaviours of restaurant managers and staff towards FW reduction and food waste management (FWM) strategies in restaurants of Melbourne, Australia, which no previous research has attempted. For this purpose, the mixed-methods approach employed for data collection and the System-practice framework (combination of Social Practice Theory and the System Model of foodservices) has been applied during the analysis process. Therefore, this research acknowledges the call for social practice scholars to understand beyond changing behaviours.