China could be set to introduce legislation against food wastage, following President Xi Jinping's call this week for the country to change its habits.
Xi has issued a directive demanding more regulations and public education to promote frugality. He called China's food waste problem "shocking and distressing," and said the country needs to stay vigilant about potential food security crises.
Zhang Guilong, an official with the Legislative Affairs Commission, under the National People's Congress Standing Committee, China's top legislative body, said the commission would formulate regulations on preventing food waste.
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"We would strengthen management of all aspects including grain production, purchase, storage, transport, processing and consumption," Zhang was quoted as saying on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China's anti-corruption watchdog.
"Specifically, (we would) advocate a reasonable and healthy dining culture and establish a long-term mechanism to stop food waste," he said.
The onus placed on food security comes with uncertainties over food production and trade worldwide caused by the coronavirus pandemic and worsening China-US relations.
"We should always have a sense of crisis over food security, especially amid the fallout of the Covid-19 epidemic, despite China having consecutive bumper harvests in recent years," Xi was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua on Tuesday.
Although there is no sign showing China facing an imminent food crisis, Xi's remarks on food security have prompted nationwide discussions on how to save food.
Agricultural experts have said food wastage is severe in China and legislation was needed to change people's dining habits.
Zheng Fengtian, a professor of agricultural economics at Renmin University, said China's food wastage was startling and unlikely to be changed by other means.
"It would be very hard to curb food wastage through people's consciousness or NGO campaigns," he said. "Awareness and behavior can be changed by law, just like waste sorting in many cities."
An investigation in 20 by the Institute of Geographic and National Resources Research and the World Wide Fund for Nature estimated that Chinese consumers in four large cities had wasted 17 to million metric tons of food served in 2015 - enough to feed 30 to 50 million people for a year.
The investigation, which surveyed 195 restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Lhasa, found waste of 93 grams per person per meal, or 12% of the food, according to China News Agency.
Government data suggest that China does not currently have a national food shortage problem. Xinhua reported on July 16 that this summer's grain output had reached a record high of 143 million metric tons, up 1% from last year.
The National Food Strategic Reserves Administration found in May that the national grain inventory was nearing a record level and that food reserves were sufficient to feed the 1.4 billion population for over a year.
It said on Wednesday that so far this year the state had bought 9 million metric tons of wheat less than by the same stage last year, without giving reasons.
"The authorities are making preparations for the long run in case the international situation deteriorates," Gu Su, a political scientist at Nanjing University, said.
The cities of Wuhan, Fuzhou and Xianning have already launched campaigns recommending that large groups in restaurants order one dish fewer than the number of diners.
Video-sharing apps Douyin and Kuaishou said on Wednesday that they would delete posts or close down accounts if people ate excessive amounts in their videos, according to news website Thepaper.cn.
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