The problem of food wastage is more prevalent in star hotels across the country. This issue needs to be discussed with associations of hotels and restaurants as they agreed to take it up voluntarily to initiate steps for curtailing food wastage. Thus an awareness has been created and the issue has to be taken up in a more organised way to prevent wastage. Live and let others also live should be our motto.
After beef bans and bar closures, the government might decide how much food you are served, next. But are restaurants the only source of food wastage and will fixing portions solve the problem? If you want to get rid of a weed, burn the whole farm down. That seems to be the logic behind recent decisions taken by the government. Hot on the heels of the alcohol ban around highways, comes another masterstroke, albeit still in the making.
The consumer affairs minister recently announced that a meeting will be convened to decide the maximum amount of dish a person can eat in order to fix portions at restaurants and thereby address the wastage of food. But according to chefs, restaurateurs and people who eat out regularly, this might be a case of barking up the wrong tree. But it is time to have a logistic view to make way for more meaningful discussion to concerned people and arrive at a feasible decision to curb wastage of food in the best way possible. The best option is to display the quantity in the menu card and pave way for proper way of rationed order before the food is served. A wishful thinking by the hotel management and regular hotel goers can clear air for bringing an amicable solution to this problem and avoid wastage to the minimum.
Avoid throwing away good food and help preserve the environment and save money in the process. It is time to keep track of our last restaurant visit and compare that with overall statistics of food wastage in India alone, you would want to go back and lick your plate clean – and maybe even the utensils, the food was served in. Food waste alone incurs huge monetary losses to industries and mankind, in general. It primarily revolves around any form of food, raw or cooked, used or unused – discarded or intended so. Professional bodies and governments alike, further diversify the definitions to various categories and implications such as the kind of food waste, the form it is produced/generated by and materials and source of waste. The dramatic impact that food waste can have on a particular nation, in terms of economic and social perspectives, is enormous especially in larger countries like India depending on the population and food consumption.
If we have leftover food scraps that are unfit for eating, shouldn’t they be thrown in the garbage? Our routine practises, unfortunately, make it difficult for us to conceptualize the magnitude of global food waste. The problem is bigger than we think.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
