China has passed a law to prevent food wastage in the country.

It means that excessive orders placed with catering services can incur a fine of up to 10,000 Yuan ($1,545).

Catering services are now also allowed to charge customers a disposal fee if they leave behind large amounts of food waste.

State broadcaster CGTN reported that the new law was in response to increasing amounts of food being thrown away in China.

In the country’s catering industry alone, about 10 billion kilogrammes of food were wasted every year.

Last August, China’s President Xi Jinping personally took up the cause and characterised the amount of wasted food as shocking.

He said the waste was shameful and praised frugality.

Local authorities, however, inaugurated programmes to curtail food waste.

Online videos of people showing themselves eating excessive amounts of food or expensive dishes were also criticised.