China launches ‘Clean Plate’ campaign against food waste

China has put in place measures to reduce food waste, after President Xi Jinping called the amount “disgusting and distressing”.

The “Clean Plate campaign” comes after Mr Xi highlighted that Covid-19 “had the alarm” on food waste.

He added that China needed to maintain “a sense of crisis over food security”.

It also comes after weeks of mass floods across southern China that devastated farms and destroyed tons of production.

Chinese state news agency The Global Times sought to reduce what the so-called “media hype” that China was heading for after a food crisis was exacerbated by the epidemic.

State TV also criticized livestreamers who filmed themselves eating large amounts of food.

• We are less with food waste than we think

Following Mr Xi’s announcement, the Wuhan Catering Industry Association called on restaurants in the city to limit the number of dishes to eat – implementing a system where groups have to order one dish less than the number of dinners.

Called “N-1” under this system, a group of 10 people can order only 9 dishes.

But it will probably take the system time to adjust, in a country where it is seen as polite to order more than the amount needed.

In a group setting, empty plates are sometimes seen as a sign of a bad host – indicating that an insufficient amount of food was ordered for guests.

The “N-1” idea confronted some criticism online, with some pointing out that it was “too rigid”.

“What if one person only goes to a restaurant? How many dishes can he order? Zero?” asked one person on microblogging site Weibo.

Others said most restaurant guests did not normally spoil food, and instead pointed to extravagant banquets thrown by officials.

Chinese state agency CCTV also called out live streamers who typically film themselves eating large amounts of food.

Famously known as “Mukbang” – such livestreams are popular in many parts of Asia, including China.

According to CCTV, some of these livestreamers are dropping out because they are unable to digest the large amounts of food that is being eaten.

This is not the first time that China has launched an anti-waste campaign. In 2013, the “Operation Empty Plate” campaign was launched – although that was aimed at extravagant parties and receptions held by officials, instead of placing the onus on the public.

• Low plate operation: Champion of food waste in China

According to WWF China, in 2015 about 17 to 18 million tons of food went into waste incinerators.

Years of trying to reduce waste

Kerry Allen, China Media Analyst

President Xi portrays the ‘clean waste campaign’ as a move to help the international community during the pandemic, but in reality China has had ambitions for years to generate the 1.4 billion waste generated by its citizens.

The amount of food that China consumes is enough to feed 30 to 50 million people annually. Such aggressive tactics have been necessary to change the way people think about their consumer habits.

In July 2019, the city of Shanghai – the largest and most popular in the world – introduced strict regulations allowing individuals and businesses to recycle their food waste properly. Citizens face fines for non-compliance, as well as fines for their social credit rating – a controversial system that affects economic and social perspectives.

The Shanghai model has since been extended to other cities.

China is also facing a growing obesity problem. In 2016, the country took over the US to have the largest number of obese people in the world. And because China’s labor market is shrinking – one of many negative consequences of the now defunct one child policy – longer study and working hours, such as poor eating habits, have driven weight gains.