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Zero food wastage bill would require restaurants to serve less rice
零浪費法案要求餐館減少米飯供應
Filipino lawmakers are set to tackle a bill that seeks to address food security by reducing the amount of food wasted. The bill, if passed into law, would require restaurants to serve rice in both full and half-cup servings.
Twenty-five kilos or more than 55 pounds, that’s how much rice Julie Marzan cooks and serves in a day. Most of her customers are workers from the construction site across her eatery.
"They eat a lot of rice. They usually order 3 cups of rice, and if that’s not enough, some of them even ask for burnt rice that’s stuck to the bottom of the pot." said Julie Marzan, Food Stall Owner.
Rice is the staple for most Filipinos. And here at Julie’s eatery, hardly any plate goes to the sink with any leftover. But perhaps not every Filipino has the appetite of a construction worker. Concern about the amount of rice wasted has led two Filipino lawmakers to file a bill that would, among other things, require restaurants to serve rice the fraction of a full cup.
"If you want two cups, better if you can consume two cups, that should be served, two cups. But if you can only consume half cup, that should be served, half cup rice. So that’s the intent of the law." said Rep. Agapito Guanlao, Author, "Zero Food Wastage Bill".
According to the International Rice Research Institute, Filipinos waste an average of half a million dollars’ worth of rice everyday. That’s almost 20 million dollars each year. Proponents of the bill say a little less rice wasted can help the Philippines achieve its goal to be able to significantly reduce its rice imports.
So far this year, the Philippines has imported more than 200,000 metric tons of rice. Well below the 350,000 metric ton limit set by the government, but still far from its target of zero rice import.
"Our government’s effort to attain food self-sufficiency is not yet a hundred percent, so we have to look at the other side, the consumption side of it." said Rep. Agapito Guanlao, Author, "Zero Food Wastage Bill".
The bill, if enacted, would also promote the use of new technology in farming and food production to prevent wastage even before food reaches dinner tables.
