Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said there will not be any law or order to regulate food portion.
After stirring a debate on portion sizes that should be served at restaurants, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan today said that the government will not make any law or issue any order to hotels or restaurants to regulate the amount of food on a plate.
"We want the hotel industry to make arrangements," the minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said.
The minister made it clear that the government doesn't want to control anything. "We are doing this in the interest of consumers. We just want the portions to be uniform and won't even interfere with the costing of food items, but quantity of food should be written on menu cards," he said.
He also suggested that restaurants give it in writing how much will be served in a portion, "whether one piece of chicken or two, one chapatti or two or one idli or two... the amount of soup in terms of mililitres, or number of prawns in one plate" so that customers can order according to their needs.
Mr Paswan said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has talked about wastage of food on his monthly radio address to the nation, Mann Ki Baat. Since customers don't know about the quantity of food being served, they cannot finish it and remaining part goes waste. So we have asked hotels to tell customers about the quantity of food in each menu so they can order accordingly."
The government has also asked the Association of Hotels to train their staff to stop wastage of food.
"The association has agreed to spread awareness among consumers and train their staff to be judicious," said Madhulika Sukul, Additional Secretary, Consumer Affairs Department.
The government had also prepared an advisory to remove service charge from the bill since it was not a tax but a tip, Mr Paswan said.
"It is wrong to levy service charge on bill. Let customers decide if they want to pay it," he said.