<p>The upcycling of food waste has emerged as a sustainable strategy to mitigate global food loss, supporting the goals of the circular bioeconomy. The existing literature has been fragmented, with most studies focusing on isolated technologies and lacking an integrated, technoeconomic, and sustainable perspective. This review addresses these gaps by systematically evaluating recent biological, chemical, and physical techniques and providing assessments of technological performance, economic viability, and environmental aspects. A structured meta-analysis has been conducted through data synthesis and screening from peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025. This analysis also includes the trend in the quantification of research outputs, product yield, process efficiency, and upcycling patterns. The meta-analysis revealed an over 45% upsurge in the global research on the valorization of food waste in the past decade, with 30%–60% of studies focusing on microwave-assisted hydrolysis on sugar release, 25%–40% concentrating on microalgae cultivation for an increase in nutrient recovery, and about 35% focusing on biogas yield enhancement through integrated systems. The technoeconomic evaluations demonstrated a promising investment, with a reported internal rate of return (IRR) frequently exceeding 30% and a payback period of less than five years. Despite technological advances, limitations persist, including high energy consumption in thermal processes, compositional variation in feedstock, an inadequate regulatory framework, and lower consumer acceptance of upcycled products. This review emphasizes the synergistic integration of biological, chemical, and physical techniques, along with robust economic and sustainable aspects, for technological scale-up and industrial implementation.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>