Food wastage: Modi govt may soon fix portions served to you in restaurants, hotels

New Delhi: The government is now planning to “fix” the amount of food served in restaurants and hotels in a bid to contain food wastage.

Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has told news channel NDTV that he has called a meeting of people associated with the food industry to contemplate and standardise how much should be served.

"I noticed when I went to restaurants that food was being wasted. We cannot see this happening in a country where there are so many poor. I asked the industry and restaurants to come to the meeting and discuss if there is any legal provision to fix portions," Paswan said.

"(They should) write that in one portion, there will be three prawns... or four, whatever, so we know how much to order."

When asked if it would deem as an interference by the government, Paswan said, "We don't want to control anything. We are doing this in the interest of consumers. We just want the portions to be uniform."

The minister added that restaurants will have to submit in writing that how much will be served in a portion, "whether one piece of chicken or two, one chapati or two or one idli or two..."

The ministry will come up with a questionnaire which will ask hotels and restaurants on how much they think they should serve and how much a customer can consume.

“They are the experts. They should tell us the maximum amount of a dish a person can eat. You go to a Chinese restaurant; they give you so much (of food). We are going to call them (stakeholders) for a meeting. The PM is concerned about food wastage and so we are going to issue instructions to these hotels (about the amount of food to be served),” Paswan told Hindustan Times on Monday.

He has, however, cleared that the instructions would be applicable to “standard hotels” and not dhabas that “usually serve thalis”.

In last month's monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed concern about food being wasted.

He had termed food wastage as an injustice to the poor.