Asian Restaurants In Germany To Fine Wasteful Guests

Food wastage has become a big issue all over the world. Whether it’s happening at fast-food restaurants or at big popular restaurants, it’s not something that has been solved or reduced anywhere. While chefs and organisations are constantly trying to find ways to cut down the amount of food wasted, it’s also difficult to maintain a set amount of food that they make on a regular basis. Very recently, an Italian chef took his charity to Rio where they’re using leftover food from the Olympic Village to feed homeless in the area. Chef Massimo Batturo is one of the leading chefs in the world, but he believes in reducing food wastage as much as the next person and he’s taken things up a notch to curb this wastage.

Now Asian restaurants in parts of Germany are going to start fining guests that waste their food, for this same problem. It was reported that a sushi and grill restaurant in Stuttgart started this charge. Yuoki, the restaurant that kickstarted this initiative, had an offer called “Taste 120” where guests are given two hours to consume all the food they have picked up from the all-you-can-eat buffet. While guests at buffets often have the ‘eyes are too big for the stomach’ syndrome, Yuoki will not let that stand. If anyone leaves food that cannot be eaten by others on their plate, they charge them €1 under their ‘eat up or pay up’ campaign. 

The owner of the establishment, Guoyu Luan explained that the service is entitled “all you can eat” and not “all you can give away.”

Another restaurant in Düsseldorf called Okinii has a similar deal. They will fine guests €1 if they leave cold food on their plates and double the amount of they waste warm food. They have been quite open about it on their website where they say that “waste is not appreciated”. A Chinese-Mongolian restaurant named Himalaya is also part of this initiative.  At this restaurant, the staff can add on €2 to the final bill if guests leave over 100 grams of food on their plate.

According to statistics in a recent study, every German discards over €235 a year. And so far, Guoyu Luan has raised almost €1000 through his ‘eat or pay up’ campaign and all this money is going to charity.

While some might consider these rules strict, it’s also important for people to know that food wastage isn’t a joke. Give the number of homeless in the world, this is a serious matter to consider. While you might not be able to feed every homeless person, you can definitely stop yourself from wasting food when you go out to eat. Hopefully this is an initiative that will take off in other parts of the world as well.