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In what will no doubt be a boon to charities in the Czech Republic, it should soon become much easier for producers and retailers to give away unwanted foodstuffs, the Czech News Agency has reported.

Tailored tours for relatively small groups with particular interests have become a trend in the tourism industry in recent times. One such excursion available in the Czech capital goes under the banner Eating Prague Tours and sees locals taking visitors to restaurants, cafés and food stores and offering them an “insider’s” insight into Czech cuisine. I discussed its services – and more – with Eating Prague Tours’ operations manager, Mirka Charlotte Kostelková.

No matter how fast I’m walking through the city, one of the things that can make me immediately slow down is the aroma of food. I like the smell of food, I like trying new foods, and of course, I like eating food. Without doing much research on the Czech Republic, one of the things I was most anxious and excited to experience was the food because I didn’t know what it would entail.

Quirky market stalls have been appearing and disappearing during Christmas and Easter in spots like the Old Town Square for a number of years. But recently, they have become a far more permanent feature at a number of locations across Prague and the Czech Republic. The main appeal of these farmers’ markets is that they can offer customers the kind of produce one can’t and won’t find in supermarkets. The large chains require guaranteed volumes of bulk goods and of a standard quality. Farmers’ markets offer the opposite: local goods from small producers

Every year, some 700 tonnes of food in the Czech Republic end up in waste bins, which means that every single Czech annually wastes around 70 kilograms of food. The Food Waste 2014 conference which has just opened in Prague attempts to tackle the problem and support projects against food waste.

The government has failed to reach a joint position on a ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants. Coalition party ANO is pushing for a blanket ban but after a debate on the matter on Wednesday the cabinet issued a statement saying that while there was general agreement on the idea it preferred a broader amendment that the minister of health, Svatopluk Němeček, is due to produce by the end of the year. Numerous attempts to introduce such a prohibition in the past have come to nothing. An estimated 30 percent of Czechs smoke cigarettes, with around 18,000 people dying as a result of smoking in this country annually.

Old Town Square in the middle of a typically busy tourist-filled summer’s day. In front are several food stalls, which are a relatively new feature for the Old Town. They are selling crepes and hams and sausages and one unmistakable stall is selling what is known as Trdelník. It is a sweet delicacy that is baked on a coal fire; it is tube-shaped, so it rotates around the heat much like a spit roast piece of pork. And it has become quite an unmistakable item, which has been marketed as something which is “Old Bohemian”. I am going now to find out

While Czechs are among Europe’s most prodigious consumers of beer, the percentage sold in the country’s pubs has fallen to a historic low. This has led breweries to push their own branded restaurants, linking the pub experience to sport and quality dining and introducing other innovations, the newspaper Hospodářské noviny reported on Wednesday.

Smoking in restaurants and pubs in the Czech Republic could become illegal from January 2016, under a bill being prepared by the Minister of Health, Svatopluk Němeček, for presentation to the government later this year. Mr. Němeček has drawn on a previous unsuccessful amendment put forward by a predecessor, Leoš Heger, but has made some changes to the draft legislation, including adding a provision under which electronic cigarettes would be permitted in eateries. An estimated 30 percent of Czechs smoke, with around 18,000 people dying as a result of smoking in the Czech Republic every year.

Some restaurants in Prague’s central district discriminate against foreigners, according to the Czech Trade Inspection Authority. The agency says that in several restaurants in the area, English-speaking inspectors posing as tourists were automatically levied with a service charge – unlike their Czech-speaking colleagues who dined in the same place at the same time.