Pub fines diners for leaving excessive food waste at all-you-can-eat carvery
3 October 2024, 06:28 | Updated: 3 October 2024, 07:23
A pub in Cornwall has been criticised after customers were charged for excessive food waste at their all-you-can-eat carvery.
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The Star Inn, located in Vogue near St Day, has introduced a policy of charging customers who leave "excess leftovers" on their plates.
One customer expressed surprise after being charged £2.40 for leaving food on two plates.
Landlord Mark Graham defended the policy, calling the uneaten food "pure waste" and noting that clear signage in the pub warns that excessive waste may incur a charge.
The initiative aims to reduce food waste and encourage responsible portion control.
A social media post about the policy was made about the new policy, prompting a conversation about waste, according to BBC News.
The customer said she paid £24 for two meals at the pub "and when we got our bill it had got an extra £4.80 added".
She questioned it and was told it was "a charge for not eating all our meal".
"I’ve never heard anything like that before," she said, adding she read the signs warning about leaving leftovers but had "thought it was a joke".
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'Excessive in the extreme'
Mr Graham then replied to the customer writing: "If you leave a few spuds, etc, there is obviously no problem. Where the problem arises is just pure waste.
"It's just not practical to allow such wastage when the margins in business are so tight.
"If everyone did the same as you. I would have to prepare enough food for 200 people just to serve 100."
He said the policy was "rarely enforced" but "yours was excessive in the extreme".
The post then gathered more than 50 comments, largely in support of the pub's unusual waste policy.
He told the outlet that incidents were "happening more and more".
"That's why we brought the policy in play, just to slow it down, to stop the waste, to stop the excessiveness of it.
"When we looked at this plate, they piled it high so you could put a ladder and a flag on top of it.
"The only problem we've got is people come in, take a plate, eat it, come and load the plate for a second time, then either just leave it and waste it, or try and take it home.
"It's an all-you-can-eat buffet, not all-you-can-carry buffet."
