Earlier this past week, I ate dinner at the Davis Sushi Buffet. As the name suggests, it is a Sushi restaurant in Davis, California. I noticed on the menu that a 10% charge will be added to your bill if you waste food. They noted that “excessive waste” is up to their discretion. I am a (self proclaimed) professional plate cleaner so you can count on me to leave no food behind. But we do live in the United States of America, a country notorious for wasting...everything. Food waste is one of the country, and the world’s, biggest issues and it will continue to grow. But could this policy be a step in the right direction?

Pros: Above all else, it will make people think about how much they can eat. It’s important to know your strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. If you don’t know those, what do you know? By considering how much we eat, we become considerate for other people as well. We respect the hard work of the people who make the food we consume, and make the most of our good fortune. Not everyone has the luxury of ordering “too much food”. For many people around the world, receiving enough food is their luxury. Practically, if I cannot finish my food it would be unlikely that someone less fortunate than me would want to finish it. But morally, it simply is shameful to waste food if you can help it. In most places, you can take food home.

Cons: A big concern is whether or not a strategy like this could actually work. Law enforcement has proved that tagging fines on offenses does not always deter offenders. Furthermore, not everyone who leaves food on their plate does so because they want to. Sometimes you get too full to take another bite. Many buffet style restaurants prevent people from taking home leftovers as well, which rules that option out. Restaurants can make their own policies to a certain extent, but this specific one can seem like just another way to catch an unsuspecting customer off guard and charge them some more.

What other UC Davis students thought:

“I myself have struggled with eating disorders in the past, and whenever people guilted me into eating or forced me into it, it significantly set me back in my progress of becoming healthy again. I love that restaurants are thinking of ways to reduce wasting food, a 10% charge on the bill could lead to a lot of negative variables that may cause more harm than good.”- (name withheld at their request)

“I think that would actually be effective but I think that's something that should be used more at places like buffets rather than at normal restaurants.I'm not sure it would be fair at a normal restaurant because a person just orders a plate but at all you can eat places I feel like there tends to be way more waste because people feel entitled to serve themselves more quantity of food" - Karina Macias

“I feel that the idea has good intentions; however, I feel that this may potentially not be a good idea, because while there are cases where people don't even bother trying to finish their food, there are also other cases where people just aren't able finish their food, for instance, if they didn't like the food or if they were suddenly too full to finish everything.”- Kyle Catapusan

“I think it's a reasonable thing for all you can eat places. I also haven't ever seen it enforced, so I think it's a good deterrent.”- Alex Dedmon

“I think it's a pretty good idea. Similarly, Nami sushi charges 5$ for excess food left over. I think it's a good policy, it acts as a deterrent”- Kevin Zheng

“The restaurant could possibly lose customers, but at the same time it can be an awareness of not wasting food because not everybody has the privilege to eat at restaurants. If people or college students in general want to eat at a restaurant, they should know how much can handle in their bellies since not all restaurants they can take the food to go. If college students want to avoid the additional fee 10%, be cautious of the amount of food. “- (name withheld per their request)

Like anything worth discussing with friends and peers, there are so many factors to consider. There are probably a great many more that were not mentioned in this article. I have a feeling that this could be a debate that could shape the future of restaurants. But for now, be cautious about how you eat. Because every action we make affects everyone else.