The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) pushed for a mandated serving of only half a cup of rice in food establishments nationwide to address the wastage of the staple food, which the government estimates to reach P7 million annually.
PhilRice development communication division head Hazel Antonio said the rice wastage is equivalent to 10 grams per person or around 384,000 metric tons per year.
Deputy executive director Karen Barroga said the aggregate amount of rice wasted in a year could feed around 2.5 million Filipinos.
“The campaign is for you to get only what you need and what we have done in the past was to encourage a half-cup serving of rice as default. And some of the provinces actually and cities, restaurants in the cities and provinces partnered with us to make sure that we could have a default serving of half a cup of rice so we would avoid wastage,” Barroga said.
Antonio said there are already 46 existing local ordinances in different parts of the country requiring restaurants to serve half-cup rice orders.
She said some of the local government units that issued a similar ordinance include those in Quezon City, the City of Manila, Puerto Princesa City, Davao City, Cebu City, Baguio City, and Iloilo City, among others.
“It would be better if there is a national law so at least wherever you go, you know that they must serve half. And this was also in consultation with the businesses when we tried in the provinces and cities, and it was okay with them as long as there is no additional cost,” Antonio said.
This year’s National Rice Awareness Month celebration has the theme “Be RICEponsible” to heighten public awareness of efforts to attain rice self-sufficiency and address malnutrition and poverty.
Barroga said the campaign also encourages the public to buy local rice such as home-grown brown rice.
It also supports the consumption of grains that are alternatives to milled rice, including adlai (also known as adlai millet or Job’s tears).
“Because we practice integrated pest management or judicious spraying, our rice is actually safer,” she said.