Law against Food Waste in France

Reference: foodtank.com/news/2019/06/opinion-frances-ban-on-food-waste-three-years-later/ household waste disposal services in France are managed by local authorities, and there are different requirements and regulations for each type of waste. Paris has launched a bio-waste recycling initiative to encourage households to recycle their food waste instead of throwing it away. The law is the first of its kind in the world. But for all its positive effects, it has been criticized for not ensuring that all transactions are compliant. It provides for severe penalties (about $4,000) whenever a store is caught throwing away donated food, but so far no one has been punished. Although French law was neither a ban on food waste nor a donation mandate, it did lead to progress. He has helped make reducing food waste the norm among a wider range of food system actors. Despite limited financial and logistical support, representatives of food aid organizations and supermarkets noted that donations increased by about 30 percent in 2017. French MP Garot – author of the regulation – referred us to a study that shows that the proportion of supermarkets giving unsold items has increased from 66% before 2016 to more than 90% in 2018. When you think about regulation three years later, the question for the American people is not just whether we could implement a similar law here, but also how we can collectively create the expectation of doing what`s right for people and the planet. The French law was born from multi-year workshops and policy proposals as part of the National Pact against Food Waste, launched in 2012 by Garot, then Minister of Agriculture and Food Systems.

This multi-stakeholder process has created consensus and ensured the long-term consent and commitment of multiple actors. This is an important lesson from the French experience – responsible cooperation for action. He says the law also helps reduce food waste by removing some restrictive contracts between supermarkets and food manufacturers. Contrary to media reports, the law was not an absolute ban on food waste. Some foods still end up in landfills. Its main function requires large food waste producers to follow the waste hierarchy of prevention, recovery and recycling – the mantra of any food company seeking to reduce operating costs. Second, it requires supermarkets larger than 4,500 square feet (about the size of two tennis courts side by side) to sign an agreement with food recovery organizations to donate surplus food. While this is a good measure, the agreements make no reference to the quantity, quality or consistency of food donations. The French anti-food waste law has been recognized by various external rankings as a sustainable food policy at the global level (The Economist/Barilla Foundation). It helps set a common national direction to achieve SDG 12.3 by 2030.

All sectoral actors are now involved in specific measures to prevent/reduce food waste and are moving in the same direction. The implementation of the French law against food waste will be evaluated in 2019. MP Guillaume Garot drafted the law. He believes that the fight against food waste should be just as important as other national concerns, such as seat belt use. Garot says he has been contacted by people around the world who want to do the same. Some supermarkets reportedly doused containers with bleach to prevent food poisoning from items from containers. Other supermarkets deliberately disposed of food in locked warehouses to pick it up by garbage truck. Food banks and charities, on the other hand, are required to collect, store and distribute food in hygienic and «dignified» conditions. This means that food should be served in a proper food bank or centre where human contact and conversation are encouraged, rather than, for example, simply organized as alms on the street. Most importantly, the legislation also makes it easier for the food industry to deliver certain surplus products directly to food banks from factories. In the past, when a dairy made supermarket-branded yogurt, it was a long and complex process to donate excess causes to charity.

Now it would be faster and easier. «This is very important for food banks because they are a real source of quality products that come straight out of the factory,» said Balet. The France is the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold items, forcing them to donate them to charities and food banks.