Bengaluru Restaurants Banned From Displaying Cooked Food Samples; Here’s Why

Walk into a restaurant’s kiosk at a food court, and you’ll most likely spot food samples displayed at the counter. Whether it’s hakka noodles with a serving of manchurian gravy or a shawarma roll, these samples covered in plastic foil give customers an idea about the quantity, quality, flavours and ingredients of the dish. But in Bengaluru, this will soon be a thing of the past as the city’s hotel association has now banned restaurants from displaying food samples. Here’s why.

Bengaluru Hotels Association Issues New Advisory To Curb Food Wastage

As per a report by TOI, Bengaluru restaurants have received a directive from the Bengaluru Hotels Association to stop displaying real food items as samples. To entice customers, restaurants can no longer use real food. The reason is simple. It’s yet another initiative to cut down on food wastage, rampant in HoReCa and F&B industries. At the end of the day, FSSAI and Bangalore Hotels Association reason that the food samples will be discarded and will certainly not be consumed.

The dishes are often cooked at the beginning of the day, cooled and then wrapped in transparent plastic foil. They are displayed near the billing counter at fast-food joints and food court kiosks. While these samples may help the customer make a more informed decision, they do end up getting wasted. Cold and stale, the samples are inedible.

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Use Images Instead Of Cooked Food Samples

Bengaluru Hotels Association has instructed restaurants to replace cooked food samples with high-resolution photographs of dishes. Citing preventing food wastage as a shared responsibility, the state restaurant body hopes restaurants will make the big switch. Subramanya Holla, the president of the hotel association, informed TOI that FSSAI pushed for this decision. But Subramanya hopes restaurants will come on board.

However, this new advisory has hoteliers and restaurateurs reasoning that cooked food samples look visually appealing and their wastage is minimal in comparison to the eatery’s day-to-day food wastage. They argued that it helps customers make an informed decision. Moreover, projecting images on screens would be alright for regular items, but it would be difficult to do this for special items.

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Meanwhile, what do you think about this new advisory issued to Bengaluru restaurants? Do you find food samples helpful in making the right choice?

Cover Image Courtesy: Canva Pro/Kaycco