Spain has announced that it’s okay to ask for a ‘doggy bag’ takeaway – for customers who want to finish off their meal at home.
It has been something of being ‘ashamed’ for stiff upper-lipped Brits, when asking for a doggy bag in Spain, and in Blighty.
Now, under new legislation aimed at cracking down on food waste, restaurant owners can be fined €2,000 if they do not offer their clients a doggy bag.
“If you do not eat everything that is on your plate, you will have the option to take it home and eat it later,” said a government spokesperson.
The Spanish government is also looking at ways of combating the amount of food going straight into the bin in bars and restaurants.
“All food items which are not needed by bars and restaurants should be offered to charities,” said a spokesperson from the government.
Many restaurants in the Costa Blanca and Costa Calida area offer a doggy bag takeaway service.
“We always oblige to customers requesting a ‘doggy bag’ takeaway if they are full.after eating meals at our restaurant,” said Bombay Algorfa III Restaurant manager Dev.
Following the Spanish government announcement that restaurants who refuse to oblige with the doggy bag request takeaway can be fined up to €2,000, Mancunian, Brenda Stanhope, 81, who lives in Los Montesinos, said: “It’s great that the government has brought in this legislation.
“You have paid for your meal so it’s only right that you should be allowed to ask for a doggy bag.
The Bombay III in Algorfa always oblige in taking away a doggy bag.”
Spain is aiming to crack down on food waste, with draft legislation setting out stiff fines for supermarkets that bin leftovers and requirements for bars and restaurants to offer doggy bags so that customers can take home leftovers.
The goal of the draft bill, adopted by Spain’s Socialist-led government, is to reduce the figure of 1,300 tonnes of food wasted annually across the country, said Luis Planas, Spain’s agricultural, fisheries and food minister. That figure equates to 31kg a person.
Caption: Brenda Stanhope: Great that government has brought in doggy bag legislation.
