Food waste: the law hardens for large areas – Boursorama

Members adopted unanimously Thursday night amendments designed to prevent supermarkets from throwing food.

For the representatives of supermarkets, MPs “trunk both target and subject.” (AFP /)

The distributors in the food sector have now ban their unsold make it unfit for consumption. They should strive to prevent any waste or failing to use their unsold, through donations or for animal feed or to compost for agricultural purposes, energy recovery …

These new provisions were brought by former Minister for Food Guillaume Garot. With colleagues in the majority and the opposition, the PS member had tabled amendments to that end the bill on energy transition new reading in the Assembly. “Displaying bleach spilled on the bins of supermarkets with food supplies, it scandalized,” said Guillaume Garot.

In addition, private-label products that are returned to the supplier will be allowed to donate while they are being destroyed. Medium and large surfaces of over 400 square meters will also obliged to conclude an agreement with a charity, to facilitate food donations. The fight against food waste will finally be integrated into education to food during the school careers. Companies will be able to exercise their activities in this area as part of their social and environmental responsibility.

“The law is wrong both target and subject, to supermarkets, which represents 5% of food waste and creating new procedures, “lamented Jacques Creyssel, general delegate of the Federation of Trade and Distribution. “We are the first donors and more than 4,500 stores have signed agreements with humanitarian organizations (…) We will meet in emergency associations we work together to examine the consequences of these provisions,” he has insisted.

The amendments Guillaume Garot resume the recommendations of a report it had submitted in April to the government on all players in the food chain. Several parliamentary dispute the authorship of these measures. The elected Mayenne gathered the most committed and amendments are co-signed – a rarity – by MPs of all stripes, including Jean-Pierre Decool (UMP), himself the author of a bill that had recently rejected pending the Garot report and Brigitte Allain (EELV) and Marc Dolez (Left Front).

The deputy PS of Mayenne and former Minister for Food, Guillaume Garot, April 14, 2015. (AFP / File /)

Their validation was hailed Thursday as “the culmination of a lot of work” by the elected Courbevoie various right Derambarsh Arash, who distributed this winter unsold and gathered some 200,000 signatures “to say stop to the food waste “. The UMP Frédéric Lefebvre was however worried about the possible risk of censure by the Constitutional Council on these measures, as they were introduced during a new reading of the bill and not at the first reading.

The Senate had already voted in February an amendment to the bill on the energy transition providing for the removal of the deadline for optimal (BBD) on non-perishable foods. On the occasion of the review of the Macron law, senators also unanimously supported a framework for the distribution of unsold by supermarkets to associations.

Once these anti-waste measures entries in effect, “it nevertheless remains much to do,” said Guillaume Garot, citing the mobilization of local communities, training of professionals and consumer awareness. The government has set in 2012 a target division by two food waste by 2025. Each French throws average 20 to 30 kilos of food per year, which represents a $ 12 to 20 billion euros one year.