#Restaurant in China ‘deeply sorry’ for weighing customers

A restaurant in China has apologized after weighing diners in an effort to prevent food waste.

The restaurant in the central city of Changsha asked customers to stand on scales and scan their data into an app that recommended food choices based on their weight, Agence France Presse reported.

Signs were posted at the eatery that read, “be thrifty and diligent, promote empty plates” and “operation empty plate” — references to a national campaign to stop wasting food.

President Xi Jinping urged people last week to not toss excess food since there has been a shortage of some products due to the coronavirus pandemic and flooding last month.

But the restaurant faced backlash on social media for its attempts to contribute to the national campaign, leading it to post video Saturday to say it was “deeply sorry,” AFP reported.

“Our original intentions were to advocate stopping waste and ordering food in a healthy way. We never forced customers to weigh themselves,” the restaurant said.