Swiss hotel takes action on food wastage

[Foreigner]

Hotel chastises guests who waste food off buffet.

Signs in English and Chinese with images of malnourished kids have helped reduction in food waste.

Hotel Monopol: Photos of starving kids in restaurant stops food waste

 

[dajop]

A few buffets in Singapore charge by weight for any leftover food on people's plates. Not for any noble reason, just to keep cost of food wastage down I assume.

 

[dk4]

Interesting thing about cultural differences isn't it!

I remember learning from an early age that when eating Chinese - leaving food behind on the plate (or even better, splattering a little off the plate and over the table) is good etiquette. :shock: Leaving some food behind shows your host that they served you well and they haven't left you hungry BUT splattering a little on the table (/cloth) shows that you ate heartily and enjoyed the atmosphere and company (because you weren't focused on not making a mess).

Compare this to centuries of Imperial waste, where entire lavish banquets were concocted, cooked and plated - simply for the purpose of being paraded in front of the Chinese Emperor and Imperial Court, with none of it touched and the whole lot thrown out once it had been sighted: demonstrating the lavishness, opulence and wealth of the Chinese ruler... what's left behind by Chinese tourists today is small scale!

 

[Foreigner]

Seems a particular community is notorious for wastage. Signs have been placed in some Australian hotels as well.

 

[juddles]

I do not believe the story.

I do believe they put those neat little written signs asking guests to not waste food, but I do not believe they put those photos of starving kids that the linked article suggests.

 

[boomy]

Targeting one specific group is racist behaviour.
The Swiss have no problem with their banks laundering Chinese money day and night but when it comes to food wastage they suddenly find their values...

 

[dajop]

Targeting one specific group is racist behaviour.
The Swiss have no problem with their banks laundering Chinese money day and night but when it comes to food wastage they suddenly find their values...

The signs aren't only written in Chinese. They are also written in English.

 

[boomy]

The signs aren't only written in Chinese. They are also written in English.

Placing signs only in mandarin would be one step too far, even for the Swiss but from reading the article it's not hard to understand who is the main target.
Also, the fact there are no signs in German, French or Italian (all official languages in Switzerland) speaks volumes IMO.

 

[JohnK]

Targeting one specific group is racist behaviour.
The Swiss have no problem with their banks laundering Chinese money day and night but when it comes to food wastage they suddenly find their values...

It's not racist.

I wish they had signs about not spitting around food areas. Why should people even need to see a sign that spitting in front of others is disgusting?

I didn't think my opinion of them could get any lower but they are doing a great job everywhere I encounter them in my travels.

 

[dajop]

Placing signs only in mandarin would be one step too far, even for the Swiss but from reading the article it's not hard to understand who is the main target.
Also, the fact there are no signs in German, French or Italian (all official languages in Switzerland) speaks volumes IMO.

Is it racist to ask people visiting your home to act in accordance with accepted practices in your home? If you are queued at security at SYD, someone jumps a queue and their from India or China or wherever, (where queue jumping is accepted, or indeed the norm) do we just go oh that's ok, that's what they do at home, better not say anything otherwise I might be considered racist.

I have seen this commonly. It is cultural, where as westerners tend to graze at buffets , some other cultures tend to lay out the whole meal on the table initially, so go around collecting things they might want to eat (but might not). Usually it doesn't bother me but sometimes there's something that's really good that's run out yet there are piles going to waste uneaten .

I guess the racist element is that many white cultures get away with all sorts of disrespectful cough when they travel. I am sure the Balinese think so. So why start picking on the Chinese, when years ago people should have been pointing things out to other notoriously bad Travellers such as Australians, Americans, Brits and others such as Russians.

 

[boomy]

Is it racist to ask people visiting your home to act in accordance with accepted practices in your home? If you are queued at security at SYD, someone jumps a queue and their from India or China or wherever, (where queue jumping is accepted, or indeed the norm) do we just go oh that's ok, that's what they do at home, better not say anything otherwise I might be considered racist.

It's ok to say something and even put a sign requesting people to queue up but can you imagine that kind of sign in Australia written only in Mandarin and Hindi but not English? I'm sure there are also some Aussies who like to jump queues and on the same token, as someone who was born and raised in Europe, I can assure you there are MANY Europeans who also waste food, but not all of them can read English or Mandarin...