OzHarvest’s annual Think.Eat.Save lunches were held across metropolitan and regional Australia yesterday, with different culinary teams in each city teaming up with Australia’s largest food rescue charity to take food that was otherwise destined for landfill and turn it into something remarkable.

At Sydney’s Martin Place, food was prepared by the Rockpool Group, Aria, The Star and others and included dishes like rescued beef and lemongrass meatballs with braised spinach, peas, potato, and prosciutto, and a sustainably-sourced hot dog made from pork sausage, bacon jam, crispy onion and mustard on a milk bun. Seven other cities held similar events, with three regional centres – the Sapphire Coast, Armidale and Cairns – set to follow suit tomorrow.

“The current global and local food waste statistics are alarming,” OzHarvest CEO Ronni Kahn said. “We urgently need change to happen now to ensure a sustainable food system for future generations. This year at Think.Eat.Save we are urging Australians to make a dish using their leftovers, giving life to food that would otherwise have been wasted.”

“These small efforts to reduce food waste create positive change and inspire others to take action about the urgent issue of food waste and food security,” she said.

Another group with its eye on food wastage is meanwhile hoping to change lunch at your local watering hole forever. For the first time, pub grab like schnitzels, steaks and parmigianas looks set to do what it has long refused to: actually fit on your plate.

According to a report in The Advertiser, Keep South Australia Beautiful (KESAB) met with the South Australian State Government last week to discuss a program to cut the size of pub meals in order to reduce food waste. About 1.3 billion tonnes of food goes to waste worldwide every year – more than the total food production of Sub-Saharan Africa and enough to feed 900 million hungry people. Food wastage costs Australians $10 billion each year.

In the case of some mega-sized pub options – dishes that no healthy person would ever even consider finishing – perhaps producing them that size to begin with has contributed to the overall tonnage – and the overall hit to the wallet.

KESAB executive director John Phillips said the search was now on for a group of retailers in an Adelaide precinct willing to curb their customers’ enthusiasms for oversized meals. The pilot program, which is expected to begin in about six months, would not only result in less organic waste, he said, but would impact positively upon water and energy consumption as well.

While gargantuan portion sizes have long been associated with America in the popular imagination, a visit to any Australian pub proves that we’ve got our eye on the title ourselves. Schnitzels come out looking like someone’s butterflied a whole chicken. Steaks the size of your head are not uncommon.

With a staggering 63.4 per cent of Australian adults overweight or obese in 2014-15, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, it’s hard not to suggest another reason for insisting upon smaller portions: our waistlines.