Restaurant owners emphasise need to rethink portion sizes, customer habits

AMMAN — In the fight against food waste, food businesses and restaurant stakeholders emphasise the need to rethink portion sizes and customer habits.

Speaking with The Jordan Times, Omar Awad, president of the Jordan Association for Restaurants and Sweet Shops Owners said that: “It is of utmost importance to manage surplus and to implement strategies and systems that track food usage and consumption in each restaurant.”

He added that: “In lots of times, plates come back half full that is why having the takeaway option gives people a chance to enjoy their food without being overwhelmed.” 

However, he pointed that many restaurants collaborate with food banks, in order to create a sustainable food ecosystem and food redistribution channels.

In this regard, Anas Rateb, who is an owner of a local food business, told The Jordan Times that: “The topic of addressing food waste is increasingly gaining momentum in the country…people are becoming more conscious and aware,” noting that consumer awareness is key in combating food waste.

On the occasion of the International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction, Minister of Agriculture Khaled Hneifat on Sunday said that each individual in Jordan wastes 101 kilogrammes of food annually, which amounts to 1.136 million tonnes of food nationwide.

He added that this amount is enough to meet the food needs of some 1.5 million people for a whole year. 

The minister, in a statement shared with The Jordan Times, said that several factors hinder progress in addressing the issue including lack of awareness, lack of coordinated efforts and adequate infrastructure.

The International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction, an initiative spearheaded by the UN to unite global efforts to combat food waste, is annually celebrated on September 29.