A female anchor of celebrity beauty in short video platform Douyin shares the delicious food with netizens while eating crayfish on June 6. The booming night market of Shanghai nightlife festival promoted the economy of eating show. Photo: IC

China's draft law on food waste, which is scheduled to be submitted for a second review next week, has specified the enforcement department for food waste penalties and tightened the management of banquets using public funds.

The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) will convene its 28th session from April 26 to 29 in Beijing, during which the food waste law will be reviewed. 

After the first review in December 2020, the draft law was amended to specify that the penalties for catering service providers will be imposed by the supervision and administration department of the local government at a county level or above or other departments designated by the local government, said Zang Tiewei, spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Committee of the NPC, at a press conference on Thursday, the paper.cn reported. 

The draft law also specifies regulations for fines of patrons due to excessive leftovers in restaurants. "The fine standards should be clearly stated to the public to protect the interests of the customers," Zang said.

According to the draft, food service operators will be fined up to 10,000 yuan ($1,526) if they mislead consumers into ordering excessively and if they refuse to rectify the situation. 

The draft also strengthened the management of catering for civil servants using public funds, so that they could perform a leading role in preventing food waste. 

Reviewing the law is a crucial move, given media reports that 35 billion kilograms of food and around 12 percent of the nation's harvests go to waste in China every year.

A law on food security is also in the legislative work plan for this year, and its drafting is underway, Xinhua News Agency reported. 

Global Times