Practicing economy and opposing waste are in the blood of the Chinese. With the leading efforts of CNIS, GB/T 42966-2023, General rules for management of anti-food waste in catering, the first of its kind, was officially released by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on June 9.

The standard is an important technical support for the implementation of the Anti-Food Waste Law of China to eliminate waste in catering, and a specific method to meet the requirements put forward by the 20th CPC National Congress, which are implementing the overall conservation strategy, advocating green consumption, and restraining food waste. It is also an important achievement of CNIS to support SAMR's special campaign on curbing food waste in catering.

Collecting excellent cases of anti-food waste in China's catering industry, the standard puts forward the requirements for various links of catering industry, including anti-food waste management, raw materials, cooking, food supply, employee training, etc., and has established an anti-food waste management system covering the whole process, such as material purchase and storage, cuisine development, and food delivery, which provides comprehensive, systematic and effective operational guidelines for various catering service suppliers.

The standard will help consumers and food suppliers to enhance the awareness of reasonable dining and preparation, further raise the management level of catering services, improve the methods to control food waste, and facilitate the sustainable and green development of the society.

The Food and Agriculture Sub-institute of CNIS is devoted to the standardization research on quality & safety management of food and reduction of food loss & waste, and serves as the domestic counterpart of ISO/TC 34/SC 20, Food loss and waste. CNIS will further coordinate domestic and international efforts for the progress in the standardization on reduction of food loss and waste in China.