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Excess French food donated

July 05 2015
Supermarkets will no longer be able to discard or destroy food

A new French law forces supermarkets to donate unsold food to charities or for animal feed, instead of throwing it away or destroying it.

Supermarkets with a footprint of 4,305 sq ft or more will have to sign contracts with charities by July next year or face penalties including fines of up to €75,000 (£53,000) or 2 years in jail.

The French law goes further than the UK, where the government has a voluntary agreement with the grocery and retail sector to cut both food and packaging waste in the supply chain, but does not believe in mandatory targets.

A report earlier this year showed that in the UK, households threw away 7m tonnes of food in 2012, enough to fill London’s Wembley stadium nine times over. Avoidable household food waste in the UK is associated with 17m tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

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