Food waste is a societal problem from an economic, social and environmental perspective. For this reason there are multiple benefits and incentives to reduce food waste as well as a variety of national decision-making approaches to achieve this. Past research has largely focused on how much food waste is produced today as well as on household food waste patterns and production given that this is considered the biggest food waste producing sector. However, little research has focused these topics on the restaurant industry and how this sector can be a part of decision-making processes to reduce waste. The restaurant industry is an important part of the food supply chain as it has the opportunity to establish close contact with primary production, suppliers as well as individual consumers. This study will conduct a comparative analysis of in-depth interviews with representatives from the restaurant industry in Stockholm and textual reports from three of Sweden’s main governmental agencies for food, environment and agriculture. The opportunities for reducing food waste are explored drawing on academia focusing on multi-level governance and multi-stakeholder partnerships between state, businesses as well as civil society. The text analysis carried out in this study shows that the ideas about initiatives, challenges and solutions to reduce food waste in Sweden differ between these two actors. It also shows that there is desire form both the restaurant industry and governmental agencies for more communication and collaboration. Finally the study discuss how multi-level governance and hybrid collaborations between state, businesses and communities can improve decision- making about food waste reduction and create improved efficiency in the development of trying to meet international and national sustainable development goals.