ABSTRACT

In recent years, food waste has been recognized as a significant problem in the restaurant industry. Current research has focused mainly on the sources of food waste in hotels, chain restaurants, and contract food services. Cost-effective tools supporting food waste prevention, especially in small-to-medium restaurants, remain limited. To address this problem, our study explored the potential of digital applications to specifically support food waste prevention in small-to-medium restaurants (SMRs). This chapter presents the findings of the study, detailing its design-inclusive research approach consisting of three key phases: (1) semi-structured interviews with eight restaurants in Brisbane and Melbourne in Australia to generate a food waste framework appropriate for SMRs; (2) design and development of a low-cost digital prototype based on the insights from phase 1; and (3) evaluation of the prototype with both restaurateurs and lay users to consider further improvements. The chapter then presents the key findings as well as five criteria for (digital) food waste prevention strategies for SMRs, including simplicity, integration, versatility, setup/initial cost, and connectivity.