After participating in the survey|The unfinished set meal, the uncontrollable low consumption...... Why is it so difficult to eat "discs" on Chinese New Year's Eve?

The Spring Festival is approaching, the hot scene of "hard to find a table" for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner reservation has reappeared, and some catering companies have launched excessive and excessive catering products through marketing methods such as mandatory minimum consumption and bundled packages, which not only infringes on consumer rights and interests, but also promotes "waste on the tip of the tongue". Interviewed experts and industry insiders said that the phenomenon of food and beverage waste is stubborn and long-term, and with the gradual recovery of the social economy, food and beverage waste has a rising trend.

Hundreds of yuan per capita and thousands of yuan in set meals are often low-cost The chaos in the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner market promotes waste

The Spring Festival is approaching, gatherings are increasing, Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and other dinner reservations in many places are hot, and private rooms are even more "hard to find". However, the reporter observed that the catering service units ignore the objective actual situation, and increase the burden on consumers and promote waste with unreasonable requirements such as high-priced packages and minimum consumption, which may destroy the existing effectiveness of the "CD-ROM Action".

The reporter learned in many places that in order to cope with the high flow of customers during the Spring Festival, some restaurants have set minimum consumption standards, and the per capita consumption must reach hundreds of yuan to book private rooms; The person in charge of some catering enterprises admitted that in order to further increase operating profits, they set low consumption or high private room fees. "Many consumers simply can't eat a lot of food, but in order to achieve low consumption, they have to order a lot of food, and in the end, they are all leftovers. ”

In order to meet the needs of citizens to book Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, most restaurants have launched various set menus. However, during the festival, small family meals are mainly used for small family dinners, and the high-priced, large-scale set meals exceed the dining needs of family dinners. When the reporter visited a first-tier city in the east, it was found that in order to increase profits and reduce complaints during the Spring Festival, some catering companies generally choose set meals that are convenient for meal preparation, and they are mainly large family meals. "Our Spring Festival package starts with a meal for 8 people, and there are only 8 people who come to eat, so you can reduce the dishes as appropriate, and there is indeed a waste phenomenon. A hotel manager said.

The reporter visited a Marriott hotel in the core area of a municipality directly under the central government and found that the three-person Chinese New Year's Eve meal package provided by the hotel was priced at 1,998 yuan, including lobster, seafood sashimi, steak, hot pot and so on. A customer who made a reservation on the spot said that three people could not eat such a large portion. "It's a bit of a waste, it's a shame. ”

In addition, take-out and door-to-door have become a trend, and the excess catering products cannot be eaten. With the innovation of catering enterprises around the world and the changes in public consumption habits, catering enterprises have simultaneously launched finished and semi-finished product gift boxes, Chinese New Year's Eve meal takeaways, chef door-to-door and other forms to meet the needs of the New Year period. However, take-out and chef visits are basically high-priced packages, and they have set up endless dishes and staple foods in excess of them, which has also become a new waste "hard-hit area".

The promotion of the "CD-ROM Operation" is intertwined with new and old problems

According to the research of the "Quantitative Evaluation of Food Waste Reduction Pathways in China's Catering Industry" organized by the School of Environment of Tsinghua University and relevant industry associations, the waste levels of four scenarios: restaurant dining, takeaway dining, canteen dining, and family dining, are 84.6, 57.5, 60.4, and 24.6 grams per person/meal, respectively.

The resumption of gathering activities has brought about the recurrence of the "stubborn disease" of waste in wedding banquets and gatherings. The reporter observed that in some banquets and gatherings, the number of à la carte dishes pays attention to "à la carte double and no order", and the dishes should include different types of cold dishes, hot dishes, staple foods and soups. The interviewed experts said that banquets are often accompanied by special scenes, and factors such as culture and reasonableness make it difficult for businesses to abide by the law and regulators to enforce the law when increasing anti-food waste efforts in accordance with the law. Among the typical cases announced by the State Administration for Market Regulation and local market supervision departments, there have been many cases involving banquet waste.

Takeaway food has also become a hard-hit area of food waste. Threshold, full discount, takeaway red envelope...... Takeaway platform merchants have launched a large number of activities, which has inadvertently exacerbated food waste. Some respondents said that when they ordered food online, they lacked an intuitive feeling about the quality of food portions, and they could only overorder food through various discounts, resulting in food waste. According to an online questionnaire survey conducted by Shantou University on the waste of takeaway food, less than 30% of students can basically not discard takeaway food, and nearly 60% of students will discard 10%-30% of takeaway food.

In addition, due to the change of dietary structure and other factors, the waste of staple food is gradually increasing. During the investigation, the reporter found that the current staple food waste is gradually rising, especially in some group activities, and in some activities, the reporter saw a large number of discarded staple food lunches. According to a questionnaire survey conducted by the Guangdong Provincial Takeaway Ordering Waste Research Group, 68.3% of the respondents chose staple foods such as fast food bento and rice noodles in terms of food category waste. In interviews with reporters, it is often seen that a large number of staple foods are discarded in some social activities.

Take holidays as nodes to further promote the "CD-ROM Action"

The interviewed experts believe that the Spring Festival and other festivals and holidays should be used as nodes to further promote the "CD-ROM action", promote the government, enterprises and consumers to implement the responsibility of diligence and thrift, and resolutely stop the "waste on the tip of the tongue" while maintaining the "fireworks" of catering services, so as to form a good social atmosphere of diligence and thrift.

Party member volunteers (right) of Yuehe Community, Nanhu District, Jiaxing City, put up a public welfare poster of "Strict Economy, Refuse to Waste" with the clerk in the restaurant of Yuehe Historic District. Profile photo

Some interviewed experts suggested that local market supervision departments should focus on the management of "waste on the tip of the tongue" during the Spring Festival, strengthen the supervision of the Chinese New Year's Eve rice market, and correct marketing methods such as "minimum consumption" and "excessive package" for Chinese New Year's Eve meals to the greatest extent to curb food and beverage waste. At the same time, the relevant departments can focus on food consumption and sales, improve the awareness of catering units against waste through a variety of ways, and incorporate strict economy into the comprehensive evaluation system of catering enterprises and banquet dining units.

To oppose waste, we must implement the main responsibility of the enterprise. An Shaoning, secretary-general of the Beijing Catering Industry Association, suggested that catering service operators should incorporate the concept of preventing food waste into their menu design, standardize the design and selection of dishes, and reasonably match the number and amount of dishes;

With the development of food delivery and other industries, it is also urgent to strengthen platform management and set up scientific mechanisms to curb wasteful behavior. Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, said that to protect consumers' right to know, right to choose and right to fair trade, catering enterprises should further clarify the information of meals, refine and improve the labeling and description of dish amounts and ingredients, provide accurate dishes, and provide diversified and multi-portion catering services according to demand. The relevant platforms further refine the scientific thresholds and calculation methods for the mechanism of making up orders for the minimum delivery fee and the full reduction of meals, and give discounts through direct price reductions or cumulative consumption vouchers. (Reporter Wumonda and Jining report from Beijing)

Source: Economic Information Daily