Biting off more than we can chew

Experts are calling for more measures to prevent wastage in restaurants and at the family dining table, as Xu Wei reports.

As he sat in a seafood restaurant in Shanghai, Liu Yao was surprised to see more food going into garbage bags than was actually being consumed, but he was even more surprised that nobody seemed to care.

"They (the diners) were toasting each other, exchanging pleasantries and trying to charm each other. Eating was probably the last thing on their minds," said Liu, a researcher with the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Liu took part in a research program into food wastage at restaurants in four cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan province, and Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet autonomous region.