The government is looking to fix the portions of food served at restaurants and hotels to stop food wastage, reported Hindustan Times. The Centre is in the process of putting together a questionnaire that will be sent hotels and restaurants for their inputs. The issue was brought up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his radio programme, Mann Ki Baat, on March 26.

“The PM is concerned about food wastage and so we are going to issue instructions to these hotels [about the amount of food to be served],” Ram Vilas Paswan, minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution told the newspaper. “If a person can eat only two prawns, why should he or she be served six? If a person eats two idlis, why serve four! It’s wastage of food and also money people pay for something that they don’t eat.” The Union minister said a meeting would be held with all stakeholders to arrive at a decision soon.

The government instructions will be for “standard hotels” only, and not dhabas that “usually serve thalis”, Paswan told Hindustan Times.

On March 26, Modi on Mann Ki Baat had said that he had been receiving a lot of suggestions from people concerned about food wastage. “We know that at home and at feasts and social gatherings, we tend to serve ourselves more food than we need,” the prime minister had said. “Have you ever thought about how much food we waste? Have you ever thought how many poor people can be fed if we don’t thus waste our food? We should take only as much as we can eat.”