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Tracking density in universities is essential for planning services like food, transportation, and social activities on campus. However, food waste remains a critical challenge in campus dining operations, leading to significant environmental and economic consequences. Addressing this issue is crucial not only for minimizing environmental impact but also for achieving sustainable operational efficiency. Campus food services significantly influence students' university choices; thus, forecasting meal consumption and preferences enables effective planning. This study tackles food waste by analyzing daily campus data with machine learning, revealing strategic insights related to food variety and sustainability. The algorithms Linear Regression, Extra Tree Regressor, Lasso, Decision Tree Regressor, XGBoost Regressor, and Gradient Boosting Regressor were used to predict food preferences and daily meal counts. Among these, the Lasso algorithm demonstrated the highest accuracy with an R2 metric value of 0.999, while the XGBRegressor also performed well with an R2 metric value of 0.882. The results underline that factors such as meal variety, counts, revenue, campus mobility, and temperature effectively influence food preferences. By balancing production with demand, this model significantly reduced food waste to 28%. This achievement highlights the potential for machine learning models to enhance sustainable dining services and operational efficiency on university campuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the widespread issue of significant food waste in the foodservice industry, this study aims to explore the key constraints that hinder restaurants' efforts to reduce food waste. Through a comprehensive literature review, three key constraints – intra-, inter-, and structural – were identified at both the organizational and individual employee levels to investigate their impact on employee food waste reduction behavior (EFWRB). Data obtained from 300 restaurant employees via an online survey were analyzed using Partial Least Squares (PLS)-Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results revealed that while organizational constraints did not directly influence EFWRB, they intensified employee constraints, ultimately reducing EFWRB. Additionally, our findings emphasize the crucial role of customer environmental awareness in mitigating the adverse effects of both organizational and individual employee constraints on EFWRB. This study expands to the existing body of relevant knowledge and offers valuable insights for restaurant management in improve, ultimately promoting effective sustainable practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitioning towards a more plant-based diet can promote sustainable food consumption while simultaneously addressing environmental and health-related issues. Integrated nudging strategies are effective in promoting healthy eating behaviours. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of an integrated nudging intervention to promote plant-based meals and determine its effect on promoting sustainable food consumption behaviour. The effects of two versions of a meal on the frequency of choosing a plant-based meal were tested through a quasi-experimental pre-post intervention at three educational context canteens. During the intervention, the priming tools were strategically positioned between the meat meal and the plant-based target meal. In total, 3,870 purchases were analyzed to observe their choices. Additionally, a total of 508 consumers completed a pre- or post-intervention survey. Approximately 60.5 kg (133.4 lbs) less of food waste was generated during the intervention compared to the baseline with a reduction of 6.5 % per plate. The purchase of plant-based meals increased by about 38% from pre- to during-intervention, while meat-based meals decreased by about 19%. The grams of meal consumed per meat-based plate differed significantly from pre- to post-intervention, while that of plant-based did not differ significantly. The environmental assessment reveals that adopting a more plant-based diet and minimizing food waste for each plate significantly reduces the overall environmental impact of the meal. The integrated nudging strategy indirectly influenced sustainable food consumption behaviour through its effect on attitudes and subjective knowledge. Price-health-conscious consumers exhibited higher sustainable food consumption behaviour. These findings suggest that integrated nudging interventions can effectively shift consumer choices towards sustainable food options by influencing their attitudes and knowledge, eventually benefiting environmental sustainability and public health., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)