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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Wednesday, September 6, 2017
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ILOILO City – The Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) unanimously approved an ordinance requiring the food service industry in this city to include as consumer option the half-rice serving.
The attending service crew, waiter, waitress or cashier should inform the customer of such option, said Councilor Ely Estante, ordinance proponent.
“All food service establishments are given three months from the ordinance’s publication to comply,” said Estante.
These establishments include those involved in the preparation and sale of meals, catering services and other related services that serve the consumers, including but not limited to restaurants, canteens, fast food restaurants, cafeterias and carinderias or turo-turo.
Estante said the “Rice Conservation Ordinance of Iloilo City” is supportive of the national government’s rice sufficiency campaign because it curbs rice wastage.
To ensure compliance, the ordinance tasks the City Health Office to conduct monthly inspection of food service establishments.
Estante, chairperson of the city council’s committee on agriculture, cited a 2008 study of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute that every Filipino wastes an average of two tablespoons of cooked rice or nine grams of uncooked rice daily.
This was equivalent to 12 percent of imported rice that year costing P7.27 billion, he said.
Such volume of wasted rice could already feed 2.5 million Filipinos for a year, Estante added.
Under the ordinance, the half-cup rice should not be less than 80 grams of cooked regular rice based on US Standard measurement.
Food establishments should also indicate the corresponding price reduction.
However, rice buffet tables, eat-all-you-can rice or unli-rice establishments are exempted from the ordinance.
The Local School Board, City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) and the City Health Office (CHO) are also tasked to incorporate the ordinance in their annual feeding and education programs.
Section 7 of the ordinance states that owners, proprietor, proprietress of business, judicial or natural persons are liable for the failure of the food establishment to include in their menu an option of half rice.
Also, they are liable for the failure of service crew, waiter, waitress or cashier to inform the customer of such option before the customer commence ordering his or her food.
Violators of the ordinance will be warned on first offense. For the second offense, they will be required to pay P3,000.
For the fourth and final offense, the violator faces a fine of P5,000 and suspension of business permit for every month continued non-compliance. (With a report from the Iloilo City PIO/PN)
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