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I spend a lot of time in New York and it’s totally the done thing over there
Wagamama and Pizza Express lead the way in vowing to make it normal to take your leftovers home to eat later
SOME of Britain’s best- known restaurants have thrown their weight behind The Mail on Sunday’s mission to make taking home leftovers a normal part of eating out.
Pizza Express, Wagamama, Frankie & Benny’s, Franco Manca, Chiquito, The Real Greek, Coppa Club, Tavolino and the D&D London group of restaurants – which include Quaglino’s, where the Queen has dined – have all pledged to do more to promote take-home doggy bags to their customers, either by training staff or updating their menus. It is a major boost for our War On Food Waste campaign, which is calling on households, retailers and restaurants to tackle this hidden environmental disaster.
Food waste accounts for a fifth of Britain’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet every year hospitality firms bin the equivalent of 1.3 billion meals, according to the charity Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
About a third of this wasted food – the equivalent of 430 million meals – is scraped from plates into the bin when diners don’t finish their orders.
An MoS investigation covering more than 20 major dining chains, which account for thousands of restaurants and pubs, found venues are routinely failing to encourage customers to take uneaten food home.
Although nearly all restaurants do provide doggy bags if asked, hardly any tells staff to make diners aware of this option at the end of their meals. And none of t he chains includes a note on their menus to tell customers that they can request a take-home container.
In the worst example of poor practice, Wetherspoon pubs refuse to offer take-home doggy bags at all. Mitchells & Butlers – which operates
Harvester, Toby Carvery, Miller & Carter and Browns at more than 1,700 venues across the UK – lets individual managers decide whether to provide doggy bags.
A Wetherspoon spokesman claimed there ‘isn’t a demand from customers’ for a take-home option.
Yet a study for this newspaper found that an overwhelming 81 per cent of the public want all restaurants to offer doggy bags as standard practice.
Crucially, the survey of 1,608 people by Deltapoll also revealed that although we like the idea, almost half of us have never asked to take home uneaten food from a restaurant. Experts said this is due to the British instinct to avoid causing a fuss.
Yet in the US, doggy bags have been commonplace for decades. The practice began during t he Second World War, when pet owners were encouraged to feed their animals with table scraps due to food shortages. Now doggy bags are frequently advertised on menus or handed out by waiting staff as part of normal service.
In France, all large restaurants have been required to offer doggy bags since 2016. From July 1, French law will be expanded to require all restaurants, cafes and bistros to supply them if requested.
Our investigation found that Zizzi, Ask Italian and upmarket steak restaurant Hawksmoor have already trained staff in the UK to ask customers when clearing tables whether they want unfinished meals bagged up to take home as standard practice.
Pizza Express said take-home boxes were regularly provided, but promised to make this a more formal aspect of its customer service.
A spokesman said: ‘This isn’t formally written into our training, but we’re going to add it to strengthen the message. We also love the idea of adding it to our written menus, and will discuss it at our next menu planning meeting.’
The Restaurant Group, which offers doggy bags at all its 650 restaurants and pubs i ncluding Wagamama, Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito, also backed our call to action.
A spokesman for Wagamama said: ‘We will be requesting that teams proactively offer take-out boxes for guests who don’t finish their meals,’ adding that while the offer of a takehome doggy bag is not currently printed on the menu, ‘it is something we will consider’.
A spokesman for Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito said: ‘We will look to include the proactive offering within our steps of service.’
Various Eateries, which owns eight Coppa Club restaurants and Tavolino in London Bridge, said the company would start using its daily staff briefings to encourage waiters and waitresses to offer diners doggy bags more regularly.
A spokesman said the company would consider adding a note about
this to its menus – potentially as soon as the next print run.
Chief executive Yishay Malkov told The Mail on Sunday: ‘When I was growing up, if you did go out to eat it was only a few times a year – for example, on a very special birthday. Today it is part and parcel of our society and we need to be less stiff and formal about asking for what we want.
‘Part of this is saying “Sorry I haven’t finished my burger, I want to take it home with me” without thinking, “Oh no, what is the next table going to think?” ’
Franco Manca and sister chain The Real Greek are also considering adding a statement to menus at the group’s 73 restaurants across the UK.
D& D London, which owns 43 restaurants in the UK, New York and Paris, including the prestigious Bluebird and Le Pont de la Tour in London, said it is considering changing its staff training to encourage customers to take home leftovers – and said it could add a statement to this effect on its menus.
It already asks customers in the UK ‘ where appropriate’ if they would like a take-home container.
Chief executive Des Gunewardena told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I spend a lot of time in New York and when lunching at our Queens-yard and Bluebird NYC restaurants, if you don’t want to take home leftovers staff are noticeably surprised. It’s totally the done thing over there.’
Dr Dimitrios Tsivrikos, a consumer psychologist at University College London, said: ‘In Britain we are incredibly polite and civil and don’t want to cause a fuss.
‘Where does the doggy bag come in? Is it after your mains before dessert, is it at the very end? Restaurants have to work slightly harder to help us shift our opinion towards takeaway boxes and doggy bags.’
The psychologist said that rather than introduce a law about offering doggy bags, it would be more effective for restaurants to remove any awkwardness by making it feel normal when people are eating out.
Dr Tsivrikos added: ‘It’s important to enjoy food rather than trying to ruin the dining experience or making people feel guilty. We need a creative way of doing that, so restaurants could inform people of three ways they can enjoy their leftovers, for example.
‘With the pandemic, a lot of people have gone through a tough time financially and we’re not out of the woods yet. So be a savvy diner, take your leftovers and create another meal with them or have them for lunch the next day.’
Ellie Besley-Gould, Hawksmoor’s head of sustainability, said: ‘ It’s
Be a savvy diner. Take your leftovers and create another meal with them
brilliant that The Mail on Sunday is taking on food waste. For lots of people it is half the treat to know you’ve got a steak sandwich for lunch the next day. Many of our customers even come with actual dogs in mind – taking home bones for their canine friends.’
A Wet her spoon spokesman defended its doggy-bag policy, saying: ‘The only takeaway packaging is for pizza, though a customer would have to ask for this. Doggy bags are not appropriate for all pubs and restaurants as they create a large amount of packaging waste.
‘After discussions with a number of advisers and charity organisations, Wetherspoon decided to address this issue by offering a number of items in smaller portions, eg fish and chips, scampi and chips, ham, egg and chips, pizza, and breakfast.’
A spokesman for Mitchells & Butlers said: ‘We are committed to cutting food waste and have successfully introduced numerous policies and measures across the business to ensure this. Guests who do not finish their meals are generally permitted to take their leftovers with them to enjoy at home. However, it will be down to the individual manager’s discretion and the availability of takeaway packaging at that specific outlet.’