France has made a major move in the fight against both food waste and food poverty by banning supermarkets from disposing of or destroying unsold produce and ordering them to instead donate it to either charities or animal-feed producers.
The legislation has seen the country’s biggest supermarkets sign food supply contracts with charities in order to avoid fines and jail sentences. The move comes after French media highlighted the plight of homeless people, the unemployed and even students foraging for food in supermarket bins – a practice that some retailers attempted to stop by pouring bleach into the bins or locking them.
Campaigners have pointed out that the wider issue of overproduction in the food industry also needs to be tackled – but the legislation is a positive move in the context of 1.3 billion tons of food being wasted globally. Of the 7 million tons of food wasted in France each year, 67% is thrown away by consumers, 15% by restaurants and 11% by shops.
In the UK in contrast, there is only a voluntary agreement between the government and supermarkets to undertake food waste reduction measures.
further reading…
France has made a major move in the fight against both food waste and food poverty by banning supermarkets from disposing of or destroying unsold produce and ordering them to instead donate it to either charities or animal-feed producers.
The legislation has seen the country’s biggest supermarkets sign food supply contracts with charities in order to avoid fines and jail sentences. The move comes after French media highlighted the plight of homeless people, the unemployed and even students foraging for food in supermarket bins – a practice that some retailers attempted to stop by pouring bleach into the bins or locking them.
Campaigners have pointed out that the wider issue of overproduction in the food industry also needs to be tackled – but the legislation is a positive move in the context of 1.3 billion tons of food being wasted globally. Of the 7 million tons of food wasted in France each year, 67% is thrown away by consumers, 15% by restaurants and 11% by shops.
In the UK in contrast, there is only a voluntary agreement between the government and supermarkets to undertake food waste reduction measures.