Mapping food waste in hospitality education: introducing the Hospitality Education Food Waste Flow Framework (HEFFF)

Food waste in hospitality education is often treated as an unavoidable by-product of practical training rather than a teachable outcome shaped by instructional design. This teaching tips paper reframes food waste as a pedagogical challenge and introduces the Hospitality Education Food Waste Flow Framework (HEFFF), a stage-based teaching framework that adapts operational food waste concepts for use in training kitchens and hospitality programs. The framework maps six interconnected stages of the educational food lifecycle: 1). Purchase and receiving, 2). Storage and distribution, 3). Food preparation, 4). Cooking, 5). Food service, and 6). Surplus management. For each stage, the paper outlines practical how-to teaching strategies that integrate sustainability into everyday learning activities, such as forecasting exercises, yield measurement during mise en place, reflection on failed dishes, portion control during service, and structured surplus reuse. By embedding prevention, measurement, and reuse into routine teaching practice, the framework makes food waste visible, measurable, and assessable within hospitality education. The HEFFF offers educators a practical tool to normalize food waste prevention as part of professional competence, supporting the development of graduates who view sustainability not as an add-on topic, but as an integral component of hospitality practice.