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
A reminder of who you're responding to:
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/672300
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/628445
Methinks OP eats/drinks every last crumb/drop
And then hungrily stares at the other customers' plates with leftover food still on them going back to the kitchen ("they didnt even finish theirs look at it going to waste noooooo")
Don't forget the: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/725308 (They used to sell Lebanese bread in packets of six, now they sell them in packets of five. The pack says five on it, but it's a very deceptive trick")
Luckily for OP, five lebanese breads to a packet is the decent serve size to prevent food waste #yourewelcome
you would go to the one that gives you 3x the amount, because you perceive it as "better value".
No I wouldn't quality is much more important the quantity.
of course quality and quantity is perfection.
I have never had a plate with 'too many' chips
I'd say over overweightiness and obesity are bigger issues than some chips being thrown away.
I hate it, but i'm not going to make myself feel ill to finish all the food on a plate, its always too much for me and i know that most of the time if i take it home, it will just be an extra throw away container used, which is probably just as wasteful as the leftovers. they often won't add left overs to a reusable glass container if i happen to have one with me.
There are heaps of reasons why this would happen (trying to lose weight, diabetes, allergies, dislikes, the meal is terrible etc). Those reasons are all more important than finishing your plate.
MS Paint diagram pls
Considering the obesity rates in Australia, more people should be "leaving food behind".
Please… I'm trying to enjoy these pistachios I'm shovelling in my gob.
OP is going to be shocked when they realise how much water wastage there is in industrial companies and how the amount that an individual wastes is nothing in comparison.
Wasted or Used?
Water is needed to clean and cool equipment.
It's quiet different to cooking a bunch of food, and then just throwing half of it away.
I would be surprised to find any industrial company that spends money on something, and then just throws half of it away for no real reason.
If you are so concerned then do your bit and simply order from the children's menu.
Usually comes with free drink and ice cream too!
also comes with a free look of disgust from the waiter that you are adult with no kids ordering from a kids menu. lol
No, OP's concern doesn't extend to them making their own lifestyle choices, it's (the much simpler) "look at what everyone else is doing, which I disprove of, these are the things they should be doing".
Most places won't let you!
or only get chicken nuggets, ham and pineapple pizza, or a cheese burger.
Yeah, well, there's 3 of the main food groups.
Though to be honest, I'm a skinny dude and still smash everything on my plate. I'm a big portion lover.
And I'll probably eat your leftovers too.
same, but then ill go into a foodcoma for the next hour or more
And then start again on desert.
Always room for dessert, even in the desert
I feel like restaurant servings aren't enough and they've definitely shrunk since the great inflation of 22.
They've never been enough for me either - I shudder at the number of times I've eaten out at a good restaurant, spent $200 for a couple and grabbed some takeaway on the way home.
And I'm a skinny dude (178cm and weight goes from 65 - 75kg depending (on how big the restaurant meals are?)).
Your suggestions are silly and show you haven't properly thought about it
Either
have smaller/no breakfast
order less
count it as two meals (if you think the restaurant has such large serves)
And finally food waste is actually a good indication of people not trying to become obese.
No breakfast, No lunch - Smash dinner, make sure it's lots of meat and veg - cooked in animal fat, go hard - eat eat eat… keep eating until you can't eat no more.
Every day.
Rinse, repeat.
Actually. Food waste is an indication that people make waste - that's it. It doesn't indicate whether people are trying to to be less obses lol… what if they'd just rather eat chips at home?
Rates of obesity in Australia have only increased.
All your points are countered by the idea that we can take and make food at home. People on dietary restrictions often eat at home then eat a small meal or snack out.
The real point is that people need to start considering their food waste and bringing containers to take food home! In my culture we absolutely would not let that food go to waste.
The majority of food tastes a lot worse reheated.
Who wants soggy chips and tough chewy meat? Then you can have melted ice cream for dessert…
Food waste is always going to be an issue from the consumer side, so the real question becomes: 'what do the restaurants do with their food waste?' as that's the best way for it to systematically be dealt with.
Some restaurants are signed up to things like OzHarvest or to local food composting orgs.
Alternatively, some of the bigger places, or franchises, will have systems in place where food is scanned and photographed before being put in the bin which then allows the manager to adjust food sizes so there's less wastage, based on what people are actually eating and how much of it.
But that's still not widespread, and unfortunately not a common practice (with or without the photographic system in place).
A good point to raise, however, as it is very wasteful.
All the supermarkets in my area have farmers that come and collect the waste (veges and bread only) for stock feed. When my grandfather use to get it from woolworths many years ago his stock absolutely loved it.
A couple restaurants i know also have farmers collect but its a bit harder to seperate the meat products though pigs wouldnt care.
Bit harder to do in the big citys but in regional towns where farms are on the outskirts the supermarkets and restaurants have done this forever.
I hate wasting food so we order smaller meals and take home any leftovers. The problem with ordering a main meal size (unless you’re a regular) is each restaurant gives different sizes so it does make it hard.
I think a lot of it comes down to portion sizes and I think restaurants should be doing more to offer small and large sizes and price them accordingly.
I can see a lot of benefits - less wastage and also combat obesity / consuming more than you need, just because it's on your plate.
In most asian countries food is priced cheaply and also the portion sizes are smaller, and if you are feeling extra hungry just order two serves.
Some restaurants here do this (entree size and main size) but often they price the smaller size just a couple of dollars less than the main size so it's not "worth" getting the small size and you just go for a large for better value.
One time I went for a Friday pub lunch with colleagues and wasn't feeling particularly hungry. But I noticed they had a full sized parma and a "ladies" parma… (yes, seriously it was called that). So I decided to order the "ladies" parma, and when the waitress brought it to the table and said "who's having the ladies parma?" I got so much ribbing from my coworkers…
Anyway, thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
At same time a restaurant wants to help someone in need it ALSO DOESN'T WANT TO TAKE RESPOSONSIBILITY FOR consumption of that FOOD WASTE causing sickness to someone.
ALSO if you talk about supermarkets, they tend to throw more at waste so that people dont tend to develop a habit of buying cheap stuff, and causing supermarket to loose money (as people buy cheaper reduced stuff than expensive non reduced stuff).
Some supermarkets and restaurants are good at donating/trying to mitigate food wastage others not so much (I aint here to comment on any particular restaurant or supermarket)
Sometimes I'd just like to order a children's (sized) meal, but they don't allow it. Restaurants only want to sell the big version, because they get more money for it. Occasionally they will give a smaller serve for the same price, but often they won't even do that because it's too much hassle. A lot of businesses like people to order/pay for too much, because the alternative is that they spend less money.
Not much else I can do, often my first meal of the day is after midday already, I'm starving when I get there, but I just can't always eat the whole meal. I can't just keep eating and call it a second meal, there's just no room left for it.
Maybe the food tasted crap. Waste of a plastic container taking it home.
since we've been eating at restaurants more often, my food waist has increased
I reckon restaurants should allow customers to purchase half-eaten meals left behind by other diners to reduce waste.
Nasty
I order 1 meal by myself and then ask for a take away box.
If I’m with my wife, we order 1 main and 1 side.
Doing my part not to waste food.
American and Aussie can learn a thing or two from the Japanese
Clean plate 100% of the time if they order any food
Also their serving portion is enough not to be wasteful
I think Australians aren't wasteful at all with food on their plate or the table. I lived for a few years in a country that could be considered 3rd world and the people there order more food than they can eat just to cover the table and appear rich. Half of what they ordered gets thrown out.
Let's design a template system:
Allocate a point system for restaurants
Allocate a point system for shoppers.
How would this point system work?
Well each business will receive a weight of product, and if that product exceeds let's say 1kg
it will have a qr code on it, with a number if a box of X 24 amount (if the customer signs it up it gives them a 10% reduction on the product, and another %10 reduction if close to expire date)
If they put it in the wrong bin, they get a %10 increase in F-waste and E-waste, so how would the shopper system work? Well if the scale of a yellow bin is under 20kg the recycling facility will send that result of waste each week and super markets must enforce a %10 percent reduction for consumers or be fined. If the weights above 20kg per a yellow bin they do not.
So for every yellow bin in Australia or green bin it would be combined with a total score Called H-waste the lower the H-waste would pass on cheaper costs to the consumer (but those that do the right thing will suffer, and to solve that problem a qr code with a number on it can help those doing the right thing fall under the restaurant act)
The information would then be stored on a data base, if that business throws F-waste out even when signing up they will receive a strike 1 of 3 if reported.
3 strikes disclaimer will appear and the cost of F-waste per a strike is a $100 fine, the second would be $500, and lastly $15000
(If the offending business cannot supply sufficient reasons why they've reached above 3, or has not paid the substantial costs will not be allowed to serve under a commercial business under regulations and goods and services act for upward of 1 month.)
Barry, you are joking, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Nation
https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Spag-bol.…
When there's seemingly a lot of food waste on an almost untouched plate the staff from the restaurant can take it home either for own consumption or they give it to their pets. Some restaurants also have a compost bin. Bowls of chips can be given to the kitchen hand / pot washer if they so choose to eat it.
This info is from personal experiences working as a prep chef more than 15 years ago.
Nevertheless, I do agree that the food waste in this country is too high. I saw a documentary a few years ago about the food wastes in the US and some restaurants were giving the wastes to pig farmers.
Wow. A lot has changed in 15 years. I daresay that noone in a restaurant is getting stuck in to diners left overs. To start with, it's an OH&S issue… particularly with Covid about. And bowls of chips, given to the kitchen hand to eat? What, nobody else would eat them? Or others are above the social grade of kitchen hand? That's a pretty epic statement right there Jack.
I see English is not your first language. Too bad.
The restaurant throwing out what the customer doesn't eat off their plate is better than the alternative. Them giving it to the next customer. That's if they don't ….
I agree there is too much waste. That's why in my restaurant if the remaining food obviously hasn't been touched, we just add it to the next person's plate. It massively cuts down on food waste and stops the need to rely on hippies picking up the scraps for their chooks.
Everyone is a winner.
That's why in my restaurant if the remaining food obviously hasn't been touched, we just add it to the next person's plate
As in food that was on a plate, placed in front of a person who has probably been talking and dropping spit (over the plate) for the last hour?????
I believe he was kidding and using satire to make his point against some of the overzealous suggestions in this thread…
You took him verbatim
I've worked in restaurants and have family friends who do too. He's not far from the truth, so I have enough reason to believe he is not kidding or using satire.
I'd wish they had meal size options.
E.g., we have my 80-year-old Mother staying with us for 3 months and there's no way she can eat anything like a full portion of food so probably at least 50% goes to waste.
Plus, much of the food she likes would be available as kids' meal but she's too proud to order those. Yes, her diet is crap, but what can you do when anything green is condemned as rabbit food by her ladyship?
My mother in in her 80's too and she eats very little. There is always about half left on her plate when we go out for lunch. Although I am not a big eater I always eat whats left on her plate rather than have it go to waste.
That’s what happens with most families or I always thought that it did…
Get your own chips mate.
Because people are wealthy now and don't care about food waste.
When you got cash flowing out of your ass, wastage is no issue
I 100% agree with the sentiment, though sustainability and being ethical is not always front and centre of the minds of ozbargainers so you will get keyboard warriors
If you eat the excess food, you're effectively becoming the garbage bin
Hospitals are free so eat and get free dietary advice!!!
My wife lives in fear of the day I say "f#$k this shit" reach over to the next table and nick their basically uneaten uneaten food after they've left….
Honestly, we had dinner at a $30/plate tapas place last week and I swear even she was tempted when she saw the barely picked-at food left at the table beside us!!
😂😂
We have a housing crisis!!
Get more Menulog etc sham contractors!
Then nobody sees foodwaste, problem solved!!!
What if I told you, you can take the food home and then mindfully eat the rest of the meal (at home) without becoming obese because you're a human being capable of choice?
Or perhaps there's something fundamentally wrong in our society about the understanding of waste and nutrition
I grew up taking leftovers home, we'd never leave food behind - I come from an Asian background, whom have low obesity rates. If it didn't taste nice, we'd cook it into another meal.
Australians have such plentiful food, that it might not be out culture to takeaway leftovers. We should make better habits!
Fact: Most of the food produced in the world end up wasted.
As an OzBargainer, I used to scan the restaurant and if there were any leftovers on the plate it was game on. Obviously now since COVID, that's gone out the window
I'm shocked, but it is a byproduct of our greed. We want to get "value for money", so we get these "OMG! This is so much food for $15! iT'z AmAzEbaLLz!!!1!" then eat 1/2 of it and the rest goes in the trash. But you know, so long as people get their "value" out of it.
If you had to pick between a restaurant that fed you what you could actually consume, and one that gave you 3x time amount that you could consume and waste 2/3rds of it and they were both the same price, you would go to the one that gives you 3x the amount, because you perceive it as "better value".