Businesses offering unlimited rice were urged to be stricter in imposing sanctions over rice wastage.
Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) officials made the call during a Palace briefing to launch the 2023 National Rice Awareness Month on Thursday, Nov. 9.
Stricter implementation of sanctions on customers, who fail to finish the rice serving they asked for in an unlimited rice meal, must be practiced at all times in a bid to lessen the rice wastage in the country.
"Siyempre, businesses ito (Of course, these are businesses), that’s their right but we also have to create that awareness that there is much wastage happening," PhilRice Deputy Executive Director Karen Barroga said.
According to Barroga, two tablespoons of rice is wasted by every person daily, which translates to a P7-million cost a year and could feed 2.5 million Filipinos.
These data, the PhilRice official said, are given to businesses to guide them in their decisions in implementing their unli-rice policy.
Barroga stressed that there is actually a common interest between the government and the private sector to avoid wastage.
The PhilRice also reiterated that offering unlimited rice to customers is the businesses' rights, however, they are urged to remind their customers not to waste food and be stricter in imposing sanctions.
"[S]ana iyong mga unli rice, ganoon, mag-sanction talaga sila kapag hindi naubos. Kasi iyon naman din iyong sinasabi nila: kapag hindi mo naubos iyong kinuha mo, may fine (We hope that those offering unli rice, they would really impose sanctions. Because that is what they have been saying: if you cannot finish what you've taken, there is a fine)," PhilRice Development Communication Division Head Hazel Antonio said.
"So sana maging strict lang sila para iyong mga tao rin ay mas conscious na sila (So, we hope they are being strict so that people would become conscious)," Antonio added.
PhilRice launched the National Rice Awareness Month celebrated every November In pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 524 signed on Jan. 5, 2004 which aims to heighten public awareness on efforts to attain rice self-sufficiency and address malnutrition and poverty.
The National Rice Awareness Month this year is dubbed “Be RICEponsible.”