This was the leftover food that a family of three walked away from after tucking in to iftar, prompting one angry diner to share the image online, sparking a debate about waste.
Fifteen plates were crammed onto the table in the minutes before the trio ended their fast. A mother, father and child picked at the meal before leaving, according to a nearby diner who spoke to 7DAYS after sharing the image on Reddit.
More than 80 people commented on the threat, with one, Java Beans, writing: “This is disgraceful. That’s exactly the opposite of what Ramadan is for.”
It has been estimated that more than 3 million tonnes of food (worth about Dhs14 billion) is wasted in the UAE every year.
The diner, who gave his name as Majid, said he took the snap at a restaurant in Dubai.
He said: “I promised myself I would not go to any buffet again. All I could think of was how many people sleep every night with empty stomachs.”
The diner told 7DAYS: “It was in an iftar buffet. There were two people and a child eating and they started putting food out 15 minutes before Iftar.
“From the beginning you could clearly tell they were not going to finish what they put on the table.
“I had to calm my friend down as she was going to talk to them, but it’s not our business and we didn’t we want to get in trouble.”
Majid added: “A person in the Reddit thread shared a number of a charities that are willing to take extra food. Also I think restaurants should apply a policy of paying extra if you leave a full dish of food on the table.”
Another wrote in response to the photo: “I see this behaviour a lot in iftar buffets. People should know after fasting for years that there is only so much their stomachs take.
“This is just greedy and wasteful. Completely against Ramadan values.”
Another added: “Sheer waste of food. The other day I was at Papa Johns for their Ramadan offer and I saw two kids leaving insane amount of uneaten food.
“We even asked the lady who served us about the uneaten food and what they intend to do with it. She said they’ll have to bin it.”
Source: 7days.ae
