<p>The continuous growth of the global population has led to a market rise in food waste (FW) generation, posing serious environmental and economic challenges. Improper and inadequate FW management negatively impact soil, water, and air quality, contributing to environmental degradation, and hampering economic progress. The conventional methods of managing FW, such incineration and landfilling, remain widely practiced, however, these practices often result in the release of harmful by-products, such as greenhouse gas emissions which undermine environmental sustainability. While current standalone conversion technologies, including gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, hydrothermal carbonization, composting, and fermentation, have shown potential for energy recovery and resource valorization, they often lack integration and scalability. Nevertheless, these technologies still face limitations, such as incomplete waste conversion, low process efficiency, and the generation of toxic intermediates or inhibitors. To address these limitations, integrated valorization approaches should be adopted to enable the production of high-energy-yielding products, including solid biofuels (hydrochar), liquid biofuels (biodiesel), biogas (methane), and hydrogen-rich syngas. The successful implementation of advanced and sustainable food waste valorization strategies can play a pivotal role in realizing a circular bioeconomy and mitigating the global food waste crisis. Achieving this requires interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure strong alignment with the sustainable development goals.</p>