For 12 Francs, the customers taking the buffet spread at the Patrizietta restaurant in Losone, Switzerland can eat to their hearts fill. But there is a condition - no one is allowed to waste food; and if you do so, you will be charged five francs extra.

The restaurant, which is widely known for its spread, brought in the new rule for its lunchtime buffet earlier last week.

The lunchtime eat-as-much-as-you-like buffet costs 12 francs but on food-wasting customers, the eatery adds five francs into their bill. The restaurants levies the fine, if a customer does not finish everything on the plate.

The restaurant owners say that the practice is legal and has been welcomed by the patrons of the restaurants, reported German daily 20 Minuten.

The new initiative was brought in by the owner of the restaurant Giovanni Tafuro, who took over the restaurant in April and soon found out that a huge amount of food was being wasted during the lunchtime buffet.

"I wanted to send a strong signal," Tafuro told the newspaper. "It made me sick to see so much food being thrown out."

The five-Franc fine is just symbolic, and the idea is to discourage people from wasting food. He said the customers have been forewarned and the rule is clearly mentioned in the food menu and in the food counter.

As per various studies, the equivalent of one meal a day per person is lost through food waste in Switzerland, with almost half the loss coming from households. In a year, the country ends up throwing out two million tons of "good food".