At the time of writing, food loss and waste are triggering 8–10 % of annual GHG emissions and taking up the equivalent of almost a third of the world’s agricultural land.

Primarily, this article identifies sustainable practices that are intended to reduce food loss and waste from the value chain through sustainable sourcing of food products, by implementing sound inventory management systems and by promoting ecofriendly behaviours during responsible food preparation and consumption practices.

Secondly, it highlights the importance of sustainability accounting and reporting during each stage of food preparation, production and consumption. It clearly explains in a pragmatic manner how environmental, social and governance (ESG) accountability standards, like the ones formulated by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard (FLW Standard), could be applied in the hospitality industry.

Therefore, the research objectives of this contribution are threefold:

• It identifies and discusses sustainable practices that hotels, restaurants and cafés can implement to minimise food loss and waste; 
• It sheds light on different regulatory instruments, including guiding principles and standards, that can be utilised for ESG accounting, disclosures, audit and assurance of food and beverage services, including those operated by hospitality practitioners; 
• It advances a theoretical model that clearly summarises different aspects related to ESG dimensions.