Anyone else shocked at the amount of food waste you see at restaurants? Regularly see waiters taking back plates that aren't even half eaten (and most of the time, the serves are not THAT big - I have never had a plate with 'too many' chips). It looks so wasteful. First World entitlement. I hope at most places the scraps at least go to compost, and not just straight to the dump.
Either
BYO container
Carry in hands
Thats the restaurants fault, not the customer. There's paper, bamboo or just the regular old brown paper bag.
Some don't want to take food home.
I have a neighbour who informed that:
it's against his religion to eat left overs
should give it to the dogs on the street if I take leftovers home.
His dumb wife cooks 3 course meals for him daily. She starts after she gets home from work. Leftovers are disposed off.
There's also a simple life hack where you can put food in your pocket. It works very well, especially with ravioli.
Exactly. I just stuff the food in my pockets like a real 2022 man.
That's what pockets are for; or those man-bags that all half-grown men seem to wear these days…
But in general there are large percentage of us like to order more, specifically in group setting.
Or there are people order items for pear presure
Or some restaurants, they only have one big portion size.
Or bad appetite or taste crap
I've never pressurised my stomach with pears.
I’ve never heard of anyone putting peer pressure on someone to eat more 🤣 you need to hang out with different people!!!
Order less and you can always order more later!
Wdym, there's a very common sentiment that leaving food on your plate is disrespectful.
Oh boy you should meet my family, must be a Turkish thing.
@s1Lence: Indeed; long-term "sufferer" of Turkish in-laws here - yes means hell yes, no means yes and (jaded) silence is consent for seconds, thirds and take home packs. It comes from a good place, and that's all that matters…
In the USA the vast majority of restaurant customers leave with a their left overs in a container and it is normal for the staff to ask you if you want your left overs boxed up. In Australia the staff rarely ask if you want to take home the left overs. I actually got denied taking home the remainder of my meal in one place because it 'contained eggs'. Its less bad now as most places also do takeaway food so they have containers do they don't have that excuse. Generally staff are somewhat surprised when you ask to take home your left overs.
It looks so wasteful
A bit like this topic…
And most of your comments…
I'm more appalled by the amount of waste supermarkets throw out each night. Always see dozens of shopping trolleys of fresh produce and bakery goods being thrown away.
The alternative to throwing away food every night is the supermarket running out of food every day. Bread costs just a few cents per loaf to make so it's better to throw away five loaves every single day if it means not running out and making one extra sale. Plus if they run out then some kid misses out on their toast the next morning, how is that a good thing to avoid "waste"?
I disagree there are plenty of shops around so you go to the shops too late and they run out go to another shop. It’s not easy estimating numbers but making more just in case is not the answer.
Then you're wasting oil from unnecessarily going to another shop, emitting more carbon into the atmosphere.
@AustriaBargain: Not when it’s 2-5 minutes away. Anyway if people just planned better we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
@bobwokeup: But if you go earlier and buy the last loaf them someone else misses out. A bakery always needs to be throwing away bread, donuts, buns every single day. It's just how it works. Running out of everything costs them money because they sell for much more than they cost to make in materials.
@AustriaBargain: You miss the point. They shouldn’t throw them out. People can go without bread. There are plenty of other food options at the supermarket.
@bobwokeup: Waste is a necessary part of running a food business. A charity could collect it all at the end of the day, but who is going to pay someone minimum wage for a minimum three hour shift daily 365 days a year just to collect old food? That's like 30k a year.
@AustriaBargain: A charity won't be allowed to collect it cos colesworths are stingy f'r and prosecute even randoms dunpster diving, not to mention lock their bins.
Now I never felt the urge to do it, but I am not complaining about others more needy than I
@AustriaBargain: As is the case with my family.. Bakers often give the leftover bread you see on shelves at bakeries etc to farmers to feed their cattle.
there are plenty of shops around
Not everyone lives in a shoebox in the CBD. I've lived in places where the nearest supermarket was a 30min drive.
maybe when ppl stop whinging your shares not going up, super not going up, etc etc then companies won't push to make very last cent possible.
or maybe we go to communist paradise where everyone gets exact rations each day and must eat it all - no waste.
Few cents ? Haha this isn't 1950.
Most supermarkets sell own brand staples like bread,milk close to cost to entice customers in and shop more.
I have noticed the perception of true costs is getting worse, and now with inflation people are still living well in the past.
Yeah I laughed at the few cents comment. So many people out of touch with reality these days.
Bread does not take a few cents to make.
Try making it at home. it will set you back a few dollars.
coles / woolies … do mark down their near expiry goods for sale by the end of the day
better than those bakery stores which throw them away
Many of the bakery stores give the leftovers to farmers as feed or to the homeless. My brother takes a ute load twice a week to feed to his cattle and there is a waiting list at some of the bakeries for this.
They have gotten so cheap now, they usually only mark down stuff one day before the best before / useby date. Years ago the marked it down muuch sooner.
I was absolutely shocked to see a dumpster filled to the brim at a Metro Woolworths a few weeks ago. Fresh lettuce, expensive loaves of sourdough, ready meals, fresh fish, fruit, you name it. All still perfectly edible, just past the so called best before or use by. Disgraceful!!
They have started marking stuff down to more than 90% off now in order to clear it, but the problem with that is they do it at the same hour everyday and people have cottoned on and now it's a shitfight with some real nasty people who love to hide behind masks and block the door to the markdown fridge, trying to take everything for themselves. Would be much better if they marked stuff out throughout the day instead so everyone has a chance to grab some bargains and less chance of it going to waste. There really is no need for waste, at least mark it down to the point its almost free in order to clear it, or just give it away..
agree. some of the mark downs are just stupid and fuelled by greed. sometimes i see like 90 cent reduction on $7 bread or $1 off $10 meat. it's like they'd really prefer to throw it away than sell it cheap.
i also think they need to rethink their price point when certain things almost always never sell. eg Turkey fillets are so overpriced, without fail they end up marking almost all stock down.
Not sure… But isn't there a law to prevent retail to sell "best before" goods? It's a fine line but not always the case. Say the Hot food in the Deli section where say the hot chicken can only be out in the warmer for 4 hours before It's considered "best before". Sometimes it's there for longer than 6 hours and they sell it.
All the supermarkets in my area have farmers that come and collect the waste (veges and bread) for stck feed. When my grandfather use to get it from woolworths many years ago his stock absolutely loved.
Waste is how resilience is priced when it comes to distribution systems.
Occasionally someone drastically overestimating their own intelligence tries to come in & eliminate waste in an already well functioning distribution system. They end up engineering a bunch of fragility into the system & the first shock that hits makes it all fall apart.
We are about to learn this for the energy grid. We have been monetising what used to be safety overheads in the grid for a while now.
Technically road kill is food waste
Carrion make sure it's not
.
The roadkill is the carrion, scavengers make sure the carrion is not food waste.
Oops
.
Not enough chips in KFC containers, too much on restaurant plates: A random12 food odyssey
Pretty easy to understand actually.
Lots of people in poor countries can't get food. Here we are wasting tons everyday.
Here we are wasting tons everyday.
Except no one knows serve size, unless they're a regular to that establishment, so what would you suggest they do?
Additionally, your hunger can change with time. Might have had too much coffee, etc
Do you finish every meal you've ever eaten? Ever visited a buffet?
Ever visited a buffet?
What a mad man! That sounds dangerous!
"Do you finish every meal you've ever eaten?"
any that I go out for, and often finish off the children's too
.
Oh feck!
Can't have the poor/beleaguered/salt-o-the-Earth/Messianic/small business battler working out — gasp! — nutritional information on food they serve the public, can we? It's all too hard to work out (typical, average) values for weight, kilojoules, sodium, carbs, fats etc.
What?! Inform the consumer and possibly grant them undeserved power? Are you mad?
As for inserting a suggestion that it may be considered a "large" or "sharing portion"? Can't limit the orders turnover, can we? I recall another topic about the Cafe Nazi refusing sharing between diners.
@Speckled Jim: What, and then let the customer order a percentage of that amount because that's all they'd eat?
"Yes, I'd like the steak, but 3,000KJ is too much for me, can you please make me a 2,350KJ option as that's all I feel I can eat right now"
It's all too hard to work out (typical, average) values for weight, kilojoules, sodium, carbs, fats etc.
That's all a total wank anyway.
Just eat real food (unprocessed meat, veg) - as much as you want but try to keep to one meal per day - this 3 meals shyte is a load of nonsense and does no one any good.
Simple, order less and if you’re still hungry order more. People are getting fatter and part of that is from eating too much. I also finish my meals but I’m quite active so I can work it off. Plus I fast for 16-20 hours so that also helps keep weight off. I digress but you get the gist.
@bobwokeup: Except its not that simple, because as has been mentioned, you're now doubling the time taken to prepare your meal (increased staff labour costs, increased staff workload) as well as doubled the amount of time you sit at the table (reduced revenue).
If you think it's that simple, you're not looking at the bigger picture for the business itself, which is just naive
@spackbace: How am I being naive when I mentioned nothing about time but that’s all you mentioned? It is that simple from a customers point of view but I don’t expect you to get that.
By "decent serves", I assume you are referring to the internationally agreed Decent Portion Size Standard, which all UN-treaty nations are legally required to ensure are served at all public-accessible dining and food-serve establishments.
Wait no, that's something I just made up. I guess you just meant "look all people are the same and have the same appetites, just a decent serve yeah, it's not rocket science mate, everyone eats the same amount".
Which ties in neatly to the "only order what you plan to eat" other point you made, which I presume involves pointing at a menu item and saying "hi i want a decent serve of that thanks" and the person in the kitchen puts exactly the right amount of food on your plate, because both you and they know exactly what that amount should be.
I hereby certify that these ideas are up to your usual standard of post, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Lots of people in poor countries can't get food. Here we are wasting tons everyday.
I absolutely HATE rhetoric like this. It doesn't serve anyone any good except to make you feel like you're on a high horse.
There are people being raped, murdered and tortured every minute of the day, even as I type this message, yet here we are, living our lives.
And lets not talk about slavery which is happening right Now. No, lets talk about the slavery that occured over 150 years ago, because thats the slavery that matters.
Lol…what a rubbish. If everyone thinks and shrinks like you, you/we would not be enjoying the life we have now. We are not enjoying just the things we started/created. Geez…Time to get off the high dead elephant
What a dumb post heard of take away containers.. Let other countries worry about themselves they happy to have 10 kids
What a dumb comment!!! Take away containers just add to the waste, even if they are recycled properly. There are plenty of homeless people here who would benefit from the wasted food.
@bobwokeup: Depends on the type of food. Some places won't donate due to the issues surrounding food handling, and potential illness as a result.
I hope at most places the scraps at least go to compost
Me too but unfortunately it all gets dumped in the rubbish.
Just think of rubbish dumps as huge compost heaps with the added benefit of future mineral mining potential.
Not really possible. Can't guarantee the leftovers haven't been contaminated by something to shouldn't be putting into compost. Also plate scrapers don't have time to seperate and honestly, half of them don't even bother to scrape and the dishie is stuck doing it.
On a good note in some places the scraps are put into a bucket for someone's dogs, ducks,chooks etc. I worked at a place that did chooks and we all got free eggs every so often. Oh and anything on its way out or mistake is eaten or taken home. Whole meals, individual ingredients, incorrect supplier orders, samples etc.
Someone definitely hasn't been to America.
Their serving sizes are another 50% on top of ours.
We're practically frugal in comparison.
But that doesn’t matter, Op’s making a point about food wastage…
Even with large portions, we can manage them by ordering two dishes instead of three etc etc
Typical Americans still eat 60% more.
True but they have plenty of issues they need to sort out. Trump didn’t help things!!! We shouldn’t compare ourselves to America anyway, we should be comparing to Europe.
Trump didn’t help things!!!
What’s Trump got to do with ‘serving sizes’ ?
bobwokeup
Username checks out 🤦🏻♂️
Didn’t say he had anything to do with serving sizes, that was your interpretation. I was referring to what I said about Americas issues in the first line.
@bobwokeup: Firstly, cheers for that dislike mate^, wouldn’t expect anything less 👍
As predicted, this comment will get one too..
(Typical)
Also, the only American issue that’s being talked about over here are their portion sizes/food wastages …But you are going completely off the rails..
If you had to digress like that, why even bother going in the past like that ? Talk about their current situation, I reckon that be much more relevant ?
@bobwokeup: Yeah yeah whatever
First tell me why do you sneakily dislike comments that you then reply to 2-3 hours later…
Are you lagging in real time or does it take you this long to actually conjure up an original thought.
(Btw, hoping for the trifecta with a 🐱 dislike on this one too ?)
Good lad.
You should look into doing volunteer work at OzHarvest then or consider donating to Second Bite. These organisations rescue food that would otherwise perish and feed it to the needy.
They break in stores at night, tie security staff and rescue all the food from being bought by clueless residents.
What is the alternative? Eat more than you should and get fat?
Usually food only comes in one serving size. I guess you could bag it up and take it with you if you are going right home.
Also, what if the food is awful and you don't want to take the leftovers with you?
Order as you go?
'Eat more and get fat' - just count it as both lunch and dinner.
Order as you go?
That wastes money.
just count it as both lunch and dinner.
And then have second dinner at home.
But what if my KFC chips are poorly-filled and I have to order another whole portion that I don't finish?
I'd rather have more than less.. but that being said, I ask for a container to take extra food home for another meal