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This post on LinkedIn Pulse purports a tweet from Mr. Ratan Tata - a well-known Indian of diverse interests.

The tweet references an undated incident at an unnamed restaurant in Hamburg, Germany. The tweet narrates a 50 Euro Fine by "man in uniform from a Social Security organisation" imposed for non-consumption of victuals ordered at a restaurant.

The referenced tweet content also appears to form the basis for atleast one article here, here - and various blogs.

I do not deny wastage of food is, at the least, poor practice. But that is digressing.

A google search with the keywords "Germany waste food fine" indicated apparently some restaurants in Switzerland, and the UK apparently levy a penalty on customers who leave food on their plate. Yet a charge levied by a restaurant is a very different proposition from a penalty levied by a Social Service Organisation; the latter would IMHO IANAL mandate a law. Further I'm sceptical that the same penalty was not enforced by the restaurant itself if it was a law.

Is there a law in Germany (or Was - since the earliest reference I find dates to 2011) to penalise a customer at a restaurant for leaving food/drink unconsumed?

Everyone
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    Maybe it is supposed to be funny. – fdb Apr 10 '16 at 14:53
  • @fdb Amusing? How so? – Everyone Apr 10 '16 at 16:17
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    It is so blatantly wrong that it might be a feeble attempt at satire: ("man in uniform from a Social Security organisation"). – fdb Apr 10 '16 at 16:32
  • Ah. To a person such as your's truly who is resident in a state where the word 'security' is nearly synonymous with a uniform & authority, and who has never visited Germany - it comes across as above the board. – Everyone Apr 10 '16 at 16:41
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    I spent some time looking around the internet in German for such a law. I could find nothing. I don't think this law exists. – gesell Apr 11 '16 at 17:58
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    Maybe it was a scheme (by a shady restaurant operator) to bilk some clueless rich foreigners out of some money. Get your brother-in-law to come in wearing a phony uniform... – GEdgar Apr 12 '16 at 01:44
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    There is, however, a [campaign of the ministry for agriculture and nutrition to reduce the waste of food](https://www.zugutfuerdietonne.de/) which includes the recommendation to make it easier/more normal to take home leftover food from your plate in the restaurant . – cbeleites unhappy with SX Apr 18 '16 at 21:24
  • I suspect that this is pretty much complete nonsense, made up by Mr Tata to convince his audience (“Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative” – W.S. Gilbert, _The Mikado_). Perhaps in his circles that is a normal way of persuading people of the righteousness of a good cause, rather an objectionable way of almost fatally weakening your argument. – PJTraill Dec 30 '16 at 23:41
  • This sounds like a version of the "Europeans regulate too much" trope that is commonly used here in the US to denigrate Social Democracies. Ergo, it sounds made up. – WakeDemons3 Oct 20 '17 at 13:09

2 Answers2

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I was able to locate a few newspaper articles about restaurants that charge extra if you do not finish your plate. This seems to be a local thing (the articles are all about restaurants in the Ruhr Valley region); personally I have never heard of this.

One of the articles quotes a spokesman of Dehoga (Deutscher Hotel und Gaststättenverband, a sort of umbrella organisation for hotels and restaurants) who points out this this is legal only for all-you-can-eat style restaurants, since usually portion sizes are determined by the restaurant, not the patron.

I'm also a bit unclear about the "social security" organisation, since the relevant public authorities would either be the "Lebensmittelaufsicht" (for food quality) or the "Gewerbeaufsicht" (to monitor business related stuff), neither of which wear uniforms. While we do have a strong welfare state social security does not monitor restaurants ("social security" in Germany comprises mainly health care, the state run pension funds and the like).

Community
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According to available (free) internet sources, there is neither a federal nor a state that has been passed during the last 10 years, which contains the search keys "Lebensmittel" and "Verschwendung". While it is theoretically possible that an older law exists, it should by now be general knowledge. That is a good indication that the story is not based on any existing regulation.

It also contains a glaring inconsistency: Social security officials in Germany do not wear uniforms. The "Gewerbeaufsicht" (business inspectorate), e.g., as a civilian agency, stopped wearing uniforms in 1873. 1 This agency could conceivably be responsible for controlling that restaurants comply with the fictional law, but it would not be considered a social security organisations. Social security in Germany includes health, unemployment and retirement insurances, as well as a few more specific topics such as maternity and work accidents,2 but none of these organisations employ uniformed officials.

There are a few restaurants that do impose (small) fines on customers who leave food on their plates. This is rare, though, and usually only happens in combination with all-you-can-eat buffets. The reason is that food disposal is strictly regulated and therefore rather expensive.3

DocM
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    Makes sense since you only paid for "all you can eat" but took a lot more food than you paid for :-) – gnasher729 Dec 01 '16 at 22:00
  • Chose this as the answer because of the attempt to reference the keywords "food", and "wastage" in (what I assume) is the Ministry of Justice/Welfare – Everyone Jan 04 '17 at 15:59
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    "stopped wearing uniforms in 1873" That made me laugh because Germany only became a country in 1871. So throughout 98.7% of its history, they've not worn uniforms. – Lan Oct 19 '17 at 19:39
  • @Lan I was a bit sceptic about your comment and google tells me Germany has been a country from 962AD, where did you get the 1871...? I bet you that in the 1500's they already had their own language culture etc. for a while and most likely borders too... I'd call that a country – EpicKip Oct 20 '17 at 13:53
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    @EpicKip I think Charles V would beg to differ that Germany was a country during his tenure. German "unification" happened in 1871. Even after that unification, Austria didn't join the union until 1938 temporarily. In other words, until 1871, "Germany" roughly referred to a collection of little kingdoms and the like. (The Holy Roman Empire did exist ~962 but the country we call Germany today was a successor to Prussia, not the HRE.) – Lan Oct 20 '17 at 14:04
  • @EpicKip "The unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_of_Germany – Lan Oct 20 '17 at 14:05
  • @Lan It became a nation state yes, but was a country before then. – EpicKip Oct 20 '17 at 14:09
  • @EpicKip Prussia didn't exist until the 18th century. If a kingdom called Pizza conquered the USA, we wouldn't say that Pizza existed since 1776. – Lan Oct 20 '17 at 14:11
  • @Lan Why was the German confederation then formed in 1815? And why was Geman already a language by then? The country has existed before the time you say... You can argue if you wan't but I will not partake in spamming the comments any more. – EpicKip Oct 20 '17 at 14:14