The continuous growth of population and the steady improvement of people's living standards have accelerated the generation of massive food waste. Untreated food waste has great potential to harm the environment and human health due to bad odor release, bacterial leaching, and virus transmission. However, the application of traditional disposal techniques like composting, landfilling, animal feeding, and anaerobic digestion are difficult to ease the environmental burdens because of problems such as large land occupation, virus transmission, hazardous gas emissions, and poor efficiency. Pyrolysis is a practical and promising route to reduce the environmental burden by converting food waste into bioenergy. This paper aims to analyze the characteristics of food waste, introduce the production of biofuels from conventional and advanced pyrolysis of food waste, and provide a basis for scientific disposal and sustainable management of food waste. The review shows that co-pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis significantly impact the pyrolysis process and product characteristics. The addition of tire waste promotes the synthesis of hydrocarbons and inhibits the formation of oxygenated compounds efficiently. The application of calcium oxide (CaO) exhibits good performance in the increment of bio-oil yield and hydrocarbon content. Based on this literature review, pyrolysis can be considered as the optimal technique for dealing with food waste and producing valuable products. Display omitted •Pyrolysis is an effective method to convert food waste into valuable products.•Tire waste is currently the optimal co-feedstock for the pyrolysis of food waste.•CaO exhibits the best catalytic effect in the pyrolysis of food waste.•Small distributed plants are more economical and feasible in developing countries.