ABU DHABI: There are many who order more than they can consume when they are out dining. If you happen to be one of them, don’t be surprised if you are talked out of it the next time you are at a restaurant.
In what is a novel campaign, a group of foodies is doing the rounds of restaurants across the emirates in a bid to prevail upon diners to order less so they don’t end up wasting food.
Sensitive exercise
Hisham Abbas of the informal group of food lovers and bloggers, which calls itself The Tasty Life, said the #NoWasteMoreTaste campaign has been launched as a special Ramadan initiative in order to help prevent food wastage which tends to peak during the holy month.
He said, “We are targeting individual customers in popular restaurants with mass appeal with the aim of educating them on the need to order less. But this can be a sensitive exercise, so we are careful not to offend them. We take due permission of the restaurant managements and speak to customers to take cognisance of portions.”
He said the restaurants covered in the pilot so far include the Ghee Rice Restaurant on Electra Street, Abu Dhabi, Curry Chatti in Al Qusais, Ustad Hotel Al Nahda and Bangalore Empire Restaurant in Karama in Dubai.
He said people tend to over-order when they dine in groups. “From what we’ve seen, a person eating alone doesn’t waste much. But tables with more people, even two-three, end up ordering more than they require.”
Abbas said restaurant managers admit that 29 per cent of the food served on any given day is wasted.
Although there are no official statistics on the restaurant waste per capita in the UAE, a study in the West estimated that 0.22kg of food waste is created for every meal served in a restaurant. This not only includes the leftovers on a customer’s table but also the kitchen waste.
Drain on resources
As food activists in the West argue, discarding food while others go hungry is only one reason why food should not be wasted. Every time food, however small a portion, goes unconsumed, there is a drain on resources – right from the water, fertilisers, energy and manpower that goes into growing or manufacturing the foodstuffs to their packaging, transportation and preparation.
Earlier this year, the UAE’s first Food Bank project was launched in Dubai when Dubai Municipality partnered with 30 food establishments and charities to open the first food bank in Al Quoz. The project is expected to cut an estimated Dh4 billion lost in food waste in the country every year.
But while such initiatives make brisk progress, Abbas said it is for individual customers to do their bit to cut down waste. “Even if the #NoWasteMoreTaste campaign is able to drive home the point to some people, it would be worth the effort,” he added.
Steps to avoid food wastage in restaurants
* Ask for portion sizes before you place your order
* Reconfirm if the amount you’ve ordered is excess for you
* Take away leftovers and consume later
* Ask if the restaurant donates food to the UAE Food Bank or some other charitable cause in which case you can contribute too
YouSpeak:
What do you do when you have over-ordered at a restaurant?
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