• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

People who are wasteful with food

Status
Not open for further replies.
Yeah when I was a kid it was "finish everything on your plate, people in China are starving". So I get fat as fuck and now it's "are you really gonna eat all of that"?

Damned if I do, damned if I don't, either way China is gonna eat my lunch someday.
 
Have you seen how much crap is in food these days? People aren't throwing them away fast enough.

There's a ma and pa hamburger joint near me and I love their chili cheese fries even though I never finish them because they're so huge. There is a small version but it's too small so I order the regular one.
 
Being wasteful with food sucks. Even if you don't find it irresponsible, do you not at least concede the point that it's stupid of the person to waste their money?

Here's a solution: take less food and finish what you do take. Shocking, I know, but perhaps we should shake things up just a bit.
 
One of my ex's used to always order big portions of food (like, half a chicken) not to mention appetizers too... would take like 2 or 3 bites out of her meal, then she'd be done. And she wouldn't even take the rest of the food home. Pissed me off, especially since I was usually the one that paid for dinner. :P
 
djtiesto said:
One of my ex's used to always order big portions of food (like, half a chicken) not to mention appetizers too... would take like 2 or 3 bites out of her meal, then she'd be done. And she wouldn't even take the rest of the food home. Pissed me off, especially since I was usually the one that paid for dinner. :P
wait, usually? she'd pay sometimes?
 
_dementia said:
wait, usually? she'd pay sometimes?

Why is that out of the ordinary? Sometimes you're with a person for a bit and it just comes down to that night who picks up the check. A lot of the times my mom picks up the check whenever my family goes out to eat.
 
When we go out to eat and our 3 year old daughter doesn't eat everything, we always get it in a to go container. Then later either she will eat the remainder for another meal or one of us will. I don't like wasting food either. Not at all.
 
Full Recovery said:
This really pisses me off, for example

When I go out to eat and I see a ten year old kid order a cheeseburger the size of his head for $10+ and only takes two bites out of it and then is done. Where it then gets thrown away with the rest of the garbage and heads to the landfill. That cheeseburger could feed that kid for three days. I mean what the fuck is wrong with people. At least take it home and feed it to the dog or something. Wasteful fucks.


I think you should take a step back and realize you're pissed off because a kid doesn't know how to properly manage resources.
 
dr3upmushroom said:
Ever heard of smaller portions?

But bigger portions are sooo much hotter.

02-10-08grill.jpg


Mmmmmmmm portions.
 
I'm guilty of wasting food. Only when I go out though... mostly at the bar. I always order something, but rarely ever eat it. Maybe a few fries or a bite of whatever I ordered (Unless it's chicken wings! I hammer those).

I actually do most of my studying at the bar so I feel like, if I'm going to be taking up a spot for a few hours, I should order something. Probably don't need to, since the drink tab is high enough, and I tip well... I don't know... just something I do. And it's not my fault they put so much shit on the plate to lure in the fatties. Serving sizes are so ridiculous! I don't need a gigantic fucking hamburger and heaping fries... that's way too much. Shit, I'm already consuming too many calories from just the drinks.

If they had smaller portions, I wouldn't waste as much.
 
recklessmind said:
I'm guilty of wasting food. Only when I go out though... mostly at the bar. I always order something, but rarely ever eat it. Maybe a few fries or a bite of whatever I ordered (Unless it's chicken wings! I hammer those).

I actually do most of my studying at the bar so I feel like, if I'm going to be taking up a spot for a few hours, I should order something. Probably don't need to, since the drink tab is high enough, and I tip well... I don't know... just something I do. And it's not my fault they put so much shit on the plate to lure in the fatties. Serving sizes are so ridiculous! I don't need a gigantic fucking hamburger and heaping fries... that's way too much. Shit, I'm already consuming too many calories from just the drinks.

If they had smaller portions, I wouldn't waste as much.

If you go there a lot, you can probably ask them to make you a smaller portion for a reduced price, maybe even a mixed plate of extra food they have in the back.
by extra, i mean unfinished food from other people's plates but you're drinking so you won't notice
 
It's not fiscally wise of the parents to do that, but it's not really my business or your business or anyone else's. Once the family paid for the grub, it was theirs to do with as they wanted.

Personally? If I'm ordering too much food, it better be to-go box worthy.
 
Wasteful with food>>>>>>>>Kids learning "clear your plate" and eating when they are not even hungry and becoming morbidly obese!


CharlieDigital said:
We had a similar thread about two years ago: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155824

My OP:

So I went to hibachi with my wife (she's Italian/Polish), mom, and sister for mother's day and we're sitting there with another family across the table with two young girls (~8-12 y/o I would guess).

Anyways, we love hibachi and of course, they always give us a ton of food, so I always end up packaging up the leftovers to make fried rice the next day (nothing better than hibachi leftovers for fried rice). Not that we're poor or can't afford it (my mom, sister, and I all make $80K+ and my wife is a school teacher with a consulting job on the side), but simply because it's the logical/right thing to do.

But this other family across from me just disgusted me and my wife in the fact that they left so much food on the plate and decided not to take it home. To think: at least 2-3 lbs of (tasty) food being tossed while there are millions of hungry people around the world not to mention the simple idea that these people are essentially wasting our natural resources. The kids basically didn't eat anything other than the rice and noodles and a few pieces of chicken.

Aside from the humanitarian/humanistic aspect, I'm also curious as to how some people forget that throwing food away is like throwing money away. I dunno, my thought is that I worked for every dollar in my pocket and I paid for every ounce of food on my plate...no way I'm going to throw it away.

I can understand throwing away food if it's totally inedible relative to a person's pallete, but then don't order so much! The kids would have done alright just sharing a plate with the mother. And in this case, it was clearly not the case as the kids did eat...it's just that they ate so little of the food.

What was even more annoying was that the kids didn't eat any of the shrimp or steak that came with their hibachi; they only ate the chicken. So the chef piled the food on the father's plate, but he wasn't able to finish half of it. Why order something for your kids that you know they aren't going to eat? And no, it was clearly not the first time that they were there as they knew the routine of the chef.

This isn't an isolated incident, of course, I've encountered it just about every time I've gone out to eat...there's always tons of perfectly good food left at the table. It was probably much more impactful this time since eating at hibachi puts you in close proximity to strangers and you're kind of "sharing" the food. I think oversized portions are partially to blame and of course, bad attitudes towards efficient utilization of natural resources as well.


That's what i HATE about hibachi, if i want a lil of this and that i end up with 3-4 meals worth of food and even though i love it, say it's a dinner date before a show or w\e what am i going to do let it sit in my hot car for 3 hours+ then the fridge? Eww

The main issue is potion sizes, if i order a burger/fries and you give me 12 oz beef and 3 potatoes worth and im not going straight home after? Well maybe your dumb ass shouldn't treat me like a hippo and offer different serving sizes.


(wow old thread sorry for the bump delete if you need)
 
Full Recovery said:
How dare you bump my old ass thread, Junior!

It's not even a worthy bump, FAIL.


Didn't notice it was old, shit happens mybad. To make the bump suck slightly less, the one chain i can think of that offers smaller portions is tgi-fridays so i tend to favor them among the crap chain restaurant circle.
 
UrokeJoe said:
Yeah when I was a kid it was "finish everything on your plate, people in China are starving". So I get fat as fuck and now it's "are you really gonna eat all of that"?

Damned if I do, damned if I don't, either way China is gonna eat my lunch someday.
With the way globalization works it is possible that overconsumption in one country can drive up food prices in another. So overeating is just as bad as throwing away food in that respect. But we have refrigerators now so there's no excuse for not eating leftovers.

Plus, being wasteful with food usually translates to being wasteful with other important resources, like money.
 
I always eat all of what I least want first, until I reach what I want the most. Then I leave a little bit to show that I have been provided too much. It's a tip my father gave me when we were eating at my Grandparents when I was young.
 
lol nice bump

anyway, in some cultures, wasting food is consider a bad thing, some restaurants here even charge you more for wasting food. I think its a good practice, i really hate it when good food goes to waste.

also, i worked in the dinning hall during my university years, the food thats wasted, man its ridiculous, whole pans of potatoes, cheese buggers, pasta..etc going into the grinder. At least the supervisor let us poor students take some left over back.
 
Zhengi said:
I definitely agree that people shouldn't be that wasteful of food. I know that when I go to buffets, I only get what I know I am going to eat. It's incredible how people take piles and piles of food and only eat a portion of it before having it cleared away.

I also always take home any leftovers. That's a nice meal the next day especially if you don't want to cook. Just pop it in the microwave and enjoy.

I went to a buffet a few days ago and I saw a family with 2 kids and every time they got up to get food for the kids, they barely touch it. I would think that some parents know that kids don't finish their food and either try to eat some of theirs so its not much of a waste or just get less food in the first place IMO.
 
hteng said:
anyway, in some cultures, wasting food is consider a bad thing, some restaurants here even charge you more for wasting food. I think its a good practice, i really hate it when good food goes to waste.

In Korea it's a status symbol to have a lot of food. To be able to feed everyone around you at least three times over is basically "you've got it made." Which of course leads to a ton of food not being eaten.

They recycle all the uneaten food though, so I don't complain about it that much. (Yadda yadda, parents born during the end of rationing, yadda yadda, kids starving in Africa, yadda yadda.)
 
NetMapel said:
I actually kind of wish restaurants will serve food in smaller size. I order a meal and it's like jumbo size or something and it's ridiculous how anybody can finish it in one sitting.

I know people who go to restaurants because "they give you a lot."

Not that the food is good, or exotic, or because they want a change of pace.

"They give you a lot."
 
Honestly, when I order something from McDonald's or something like that I usually don't finish it all. I think part of it is that I'm a slow eater and it takes about 15-minutes to realize your full so I tend not to eat as much as I intend to. So I just throw the rest away. Am I going to eat a half-eaten cheeseburger tomorrow? Hell no.

Same goes for Subway when they do the $5 footlongs. Can I eat a whole footlong? Nope. But it's like 50 cents more to get the footlong, so I'll get that and eat about 9 inches and throw the rest away. I'm not going eat a toasted sub the next day.

Like someone else said, if these places offered smaller portions for less(without having to get a damn happy meal) I'd gladly do it, but they don't.

And honestly, I'd rather stop when I am full than force myself to eat more than my body wants. That's why I hate the whole, "clear your plate" rule. If the kid's full, there's no need to force him into obesity.
 
My dad nearly starved to death as a baby. That may slant my view on this issue a bit, but I still have a zero tolerance stance on wasting food.

All you can eat buffets are the worst in that regard.

It's all you can eat, you fat fucks, don't heap mountains of food on your plate when you're already on your third run and didn't finish all of the first two. Just take small, sensible portions back to your seat, you'll enjoy it more since it will still be warm while you eat it, and the restaurant doesn't need to throw away huge amounts of food when your eyes were larger than your stomach... again. And at least ask to get a doggiebag, even if you don't have a pet. Why waste the delicious foodstuffs, the restaurant will have to throw it away, and it won't spoil.

That was something that really pissed me off when I was in the USofA as a kid. The amount of food I witnessed going to waste was maddening - and I couldn't care less about the weather, the poor kids in Africa or the Chinese eating my lunch (strictly speaking about their relationship to the food directly in front of me, of course).

It's all about wasting. I love food. I hate seeing it being thrown away. Sure, sometimes you can't help it, but most of the time there's a way to order less, share one portion between friends, or eat somewhere else instead.
 
Will eat all (the substantial parts of the meal anyway) or take out. In Japan, the portions are tiny enough that I'm never, ever full early anyway.
 
I understand the hungry people in the world sentiment, but whether it passes through your colon or through some garbage disposal, it's not going to them either way.
 
natedog4000 said:
Same goes for Subway when they do the $5 footlongs. Can I eat a whole footlong? Nope. But it's like 50 cents more to get the footlong, so I'll get that and eat about 9 inches and throw the rest away. I'm not going eat a toasted sub the next day.

Like someone else said, if these places offered smaller portions for less(without having to get a damn happy meal) I'd gladly do it, but they don't.


So you buy the longer sandwich for a bit more even though you know that you can´t eat it all, then you complain about not being able to buy smaller portions?

Sorry, but if you and everybody else with the same problem don´t stop buying what you consider oversized portions, they seller doesn´t have any indication that you want less. The only feedback they´ll get is the mouth-stuffing fatso that´ll complain that there´s no mayo on his coke.
 
I hate it when my the side stuff is bigger than my main, WTF is up with that?
a mountain of bad fries next to my main...
Okay, I will eat my main, but I won't even attempt to finish a 1/4 of those awful fries...
fries are way over-rated and are overly used everywhere

boo fries
 
soundahfekz said:
I understand the hungry people in the world sentiment, but whether it passes through your colon or through some garbage disposal, it's not going to them either way.

Sad fact is that there is about enough food for all to eat without being underfed. It's just not equally divided/logistical-economically difficult. The people that are eating too much should be eating less, the people that have few or nothing to eat should be eating more.
Destroying food to keep prices high doesn't help, but dumping that food somewhere isn't much better for the local economy either, though.
 
Furoba said:
Sad fact is that there is about enough food for all to eat without being underfed. It's just not equally divided/logistical-economically difficult. The people that are eating too much should be eating less, the people that have few or nothing to eat should be eating more.
Destroying food to keep prices high doesn't help, but dumping that food somewhere isn't much better for the local economy either, though.

Even if we eat less, or don't get as much on our plates, that food is NOT going to be shipped over to countries that need it. Even with the world current consumption rate (whatever it is), there's more than enough food available to end the majority of famine in the world.

I don't understand the idea of "wasting food". It's not like if we reduce the amount of food on our plates that it will accelerate the global initiative to provided essential meals to those who need them. We could've done that ages ago.
 
You should be more pissed at the restaurants. The amount of food that gets wasted just because they couldnt sell it is staggering. Especially at buffets. The amount of food they throw out in one day could feed you for a week
 
soundahfekz said:
I understand the hungry people in the world sentiment, but whether it passes through your colon or through some garbage disposal, it's not going to them either way.


Glad someone said it, if you want to ship my extra fries to Afica be my guest really take them, otherwise i will throw them out and pass on the heart attack/diabetes.
 
Ehh... I'd be more concerned with the packaging

That food will eventually break down, turn into soil, and become more food but that box it came in will probably just sit around for awhile

That said, kids suck. He probably ate the entire thing the last time he ordered it and complained he was still hungry. This time he barely ate it - kids suck like that
 
If you are out eating and don't finish your food, doggy bag it, goddamn.

I am one of those annoying fucks who can't stand wasted food, it's probably the Ethiopian in me. One time I was at a restaurant with a few girls and they all got full within like... 5 bites of their food, and was about to have the waiter take it away. Yeah, I ate almost all their plates left overs. You don't want to eat out with me if you get embarassed at that sort of shit.
 
Full Recovery said:
This really pisses me off, for example

When I go out to eat and I see a ten year old kid order a cheeseburger the size of his head for $10+ and only takes two bites out of it and then is done. Where it then gets thrown away with the rest of the garbage and heads to the landfill. That cheeseburger could feed that kid for three days. I mean what the fuck is wrong with people. At least take it home and feed it to the dog or something. Wasteful fucks.
+1

I learned to clean my plate when eating. Then again, that was never a problem for me b/c I was a fat kid that loved food :lol

If I ever ordered too much or took too much food out of the pot, I'd have to take it home and put it in the fridge for later.

By the way, nothing from McDonalds tastes very good after its been microwaved.
 
nestea said:
When I worked night shifts at Tim Hortons we threw out about a garbage bag full of food every night.
VelvetMouth said:
That policy just sucks. We asked our local grocer if we could have or buy their old produce to feed our animals but they couldn't do it because of rules they have that I guess prevent lawsuits if somebody were to consume spoilt produce. I know they have these rules in place because here in the US people are so litigious, but it's sad to think that the produce is just going into a landfill when it could be used as animal fodder or even to feed the poor.
I think a big part of the policy of throwing things out instead of letting people take them home is trying to keep employees from saying something is spoiled/rotten/excess/whatever when it's actually not.

You KNOW there would be people that bring out the wrong order to people intentionally just so it would get sent back to the kitchen and they could eat it themselves, or who would call a bag of oranges spoiled so they could take it home.
 
Last night was only the second time I've ever boxed a meal because I couldn't finish it (and the first was only to make room for cheescake). Restaurants always have large portions and I feel like a such a fatass every time I clean my plate :lol
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom