Abstract
Bakotile Dineo MABILU This study addresses the challenge of ineffective management of restaurant food waste, which remains a global issue. As such, it investigates strategies for mitigating food waste in hotel restaurants. It is crucial for food service industries to be well-informed about food recovery methods and ways to repurpose food waste. Despite the global importance of this topic and the various studies that have been conducted, restaurant food waste mitigation remains under-researched. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute to the literature by exploring and critically analysing the issue of food waste in restaurants and outlining strategies for mitigation from the perspective of hospitality industry management. The study employed a qualitative research method for data collection and analysis. Interviews were conducted at a hotel restaurant in Gauteng. The objectives of the study are to determine how food waste is measured, explore how management repurposes food waste, and analyse management strategies for mitigating food waste. To achieve these objectives, primary data collection was used to gather detailed information about hotel management's experiences with food waste. The study identified the causes of food waste and its effects in restaurants. Restaurant managers emphasized effective strategies that could be applied in other establishments as well.