Stephanie Jones, vice president of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said, quoted by the Toronto Star, "The city is looking at food packaging through the lens of how to get rid of it, rather than how it protects our food from contamination, spillage and waste and how it protects consumers... We are not going to compromise food safety in order to achieve some kind of misguided reduction target the city has set."
A city report released Tuesday proposed that dining establishments switch to reusable food containers instead of using throwaway plastic containers and to ban beginning in 2010 food containers and coffee cups that are not compatible with the blue bin recycling program of Toronto.
Jones cautioned on the suggestion for diners to bring in their own containers in exchange for discounts because it may place restaurant patrons' health at risk due to unsure sanitation procedures used by the container owner.
George Rathbon, general manager of Toronto's solid waste management services, said the CRFA's worries are baseless.
Because of the intense lobbying of the restaurateurs and environmentalists over the food packaging reduction proposal, Toronto Councilor Glenn de Baeremaeker, the chairman of the public works committee that will deliberate on the proposed measures, expects protracted and massive battle between the two groups next week.
