Food waste remains a major obstacle to the transition to circular hospitality systems. This study examines how food waste is generated within hotel food-service operations and identifies operational levers for prevention-oriented redesign. Drawing on immersive fieldwork, it documents food flows across preparation and service, providing a property-level estimate of waste volumes and identifying operational hotspots. The analysis reveals four waste-generation mechanisms: defensive batching during mise en place, abundance signalling and late replenishment in buffet service, portion–demand misalignment in plated service, and weak segregation and monitoring in back-of-house routines. These mechanisms arise from service design and operational timing, not demand variability alone. Building on these findings, the study proposes a circular transition framework based on five operational levers: demand-synchronised mise en place, menu modularity and ingredient cross-utilisation, dynamic replenishment cut-offs, portion calibration and plate architecture, and tiered waste tracking embedded in managerial KPIs. • Quantifies food-waste flows in prep, service, and post-service phases. • Compares buffet and à la carte formats to reveal key waste hotspots. • Uses a transparent, replicable material-flow protocol for hotel operations. • Recommends low-cost actions to cut waste without hurting guest experience. • Provides property-level benchmarks of food-waste volumes for hospitality.

Properties and microbial communities of caproic acid production from food waste through lactate-based chain elongation: A comparative study between one-stage and two-stage systems.

Integrating metagenomics and explainable artificial intelligence for modeling of food waste treatment using full-scale anaerobic digestion.

Optimizing lipid retention for anaerobic membrane bioreactors treating food waste: Balancing methane enhancement and membrane fouling control.

Metabolomic characterization of stink bug-damaged hazelnuts: Cultivar-specific defense responses and associated chemical signatures.

Towards more sustainable biohydrogen production: Reducing freshwater demand via municipal wastewater-based dilution of food waste

Upgrading of food waste by hydrothermal carbonization: production, characterization, and application for hydrothermal products

Integrated carbon dioxide capture and nutrient removal from food waste digestate: A microalgae-assisted process in a smart photobioreactor for enhanced environmental performance

Assessing hydrochar wash-water toxicity: screening strategies for reducing toxicity from food waste-derived hydrochars.

Life cycle assessment of municipal solid waste management in the Region of Waterloo, Canada.

Bioaerosol emissions during initial food waste degradation: Emission dynamics, dispersion modeling, and health risk assessment.

A facile synthesis was used for the preparation of highly porous carbons from bread waste. This synthesis relied on the fast ball milling of only two reagents, dry bread, and a mild activation agent, followed by direct thermal treatment at 800°C, afforded carbons with high specific surface areas up to 2400 m2·g-1, and a large pore volume up to 1.56 cm3·g-1. This seems to be the first attempt to employ ball milling for the synthesis of sustainable bread-derived highly porous carbons. Effective activation was achieved thanks to homogeneous distribution of the activating agent throughout the precursor, ensured by mechanochemical treatment. These carbons adsorbed a high amount of carbon dioxide at 0°C and 1 bar, up to 6.7 mmol·g-1. Moreover, cyclic stability, CO2/N2 selectivity at 0°C, and benzene adsorption-desorption isotherms at 20°C were determined for the selected samples. High porosity in carbons is essential for adsorption and catalysis-related applications. Additionally, the proposed strategy provides a solution for cost-effective and feasible food waste management.

Stepwise thermal hydrolysis and hydrothermal conversion of food waste to intensify the formation of humic acids.

Effect of impeller design and operating conditions on food waste hydrolysis: Insights from experiments and computational fluid dynamics simulations.

Valorization of dragon fruit peel into advanced functional carbon quantum dot/betalain composite films for smart and active beef packaging.

Separation and purification of caproic acid from chain elongation fermentation broth: A comparative study between adsorption and reactive extraction

Food waste is a major global issue, with fruit and vegetables accounting for a large proportion of postharvest losses. This study quantifies the impact of dynamic temperature and relative humidity (RH) conditions on postharvest quality and shelf life of cherry tomatoes. Key quality attributes (weight loss, decay, color, firmness, pH, and total soluble solids) were monitored under 14 storage scenarios simulating real cold-chain conditions: four constant temperatures (5, 8, 15, and 22 °C), eight variable temperatures, and two transportation scenarios using a controlled climate chamber. From continuous sensor records, interpretable exposure and fluctuation indicators for temperature and RH were derived and, combined with time, they were used as predictors in parsimonious multiple linear regression models, including nonlinear transformations. Our results demonstrated that higher temperatures and larger temperature/RH fluctuations accelerate quality deterioration, thus decreasing shelf life, and highlighted cumulative, irreversible quality losses driven by the dynamics of environmental conditions. A model linking softening to weight loss was also presented. The proposed indicator-based predictive framework enables estimation of quality degradation from recorded environmental histories, facilitating early identification of at-risk batches and optimizing distribution strategies to reduce food waste in the cold chain.

Ultrasound-assisted water based sustainable extraction of potato peel extract for the development of potato starch based active edible films for the preservation of fresh-cut potatoes.

Effect of delivery mode and temperature control of microbial consortium-based compound enzyme on anaerobic digestion of food waste: Decipherment from engineering and energy angles.

Co-composting of biodegradable plastic with food waste digestate: Influence of co-composting strategy on plastic fate and nitrogen transformation.