Green Restaurant Sustainability and Food Waste: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends and Collaboration Networks

The increasing environmental impact of the foodservice sector has intensified interest in green restaurant sustainability and food waste reduction. Although research in this area has expanded rapidly, the thematic development and structural position of food waste within green restaurant sustainability scholarship remain insufficiently clarified. This study aimed to examine the evolution, thematic structure, and collaboration patterns of research addressing green restaurants, sustainable foodservice, and food waste. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection between 2000 and 2026. Following a PRISMA‐inspired screening process, 83 publications were retained for analysis. Science mapping and visualization techniques were performed using VOSviewer to examine publication trends, keyword co‐occurrence structures, and collaboration networks at both author and country levels. The findings indicate a substantial increase in publication activity after 2019, reflecting growing scholarly attention to sustainability‐oriented restaurant practices. Keyword and overlay analyses reveal a thematic transition from consumer intention and green image studies toward more operationally oriented themes such as food waste management, sustainable practices, certification systems, and resource efficiency. Collaboration networks further demonstrate the increasing internationalization of the field, particularly through contributions from the United States, China, South Korea, and emerging economies. Overall, the findings suggest that food waste has become an increasingly central component of green restaurant sustainability research rather than a peripheral environmental issue. The study highlights how sustainability‐oriented restaurant research is gradually shifting toward more measurable sustainability approaches increasingly connected to responsible consumption, circular economy practices, and operational sustainability.