French supermarkets banned from throwing away

[Alphaleader]

French supermarkets banned from throwing away and spoiling unsold food

'Supermarkets will be obliged to sign a donation deal with charities'

 

Supermarkets in France have been banned from throwing away or spoiling unsold food by law.

The stores are now required to donate unwanted food to charities and food banks.

To stop foragers, some supermarkets have poured bleach over the discarded food or storing binned food in locked warehouses.

 

This law was voted unanimously by the French senate on Wednesday after a petition was launched by Courbevoie councillor Arash Derambarsh.

It will apply to any supermarket with a footprint of 400 square metres or larger.

If companies flout the law they coud incur fines up to 3750 Euros.

Jacques Bailet from Banques Alimentaires, a network of Food banks, told the Guardian: "Most importantly, because supermarkets will be obliged to sign a donation deal with charities, we’ll be able to increase the quality and diversity of food we get and distribute

 

France Become the first country to force all supermarkets to give unsold food to needy

 

Source : http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-law-bans-supermarkets-throwing-away-and-spoiling-unsold-food-giving-them-to-food-banks-and-a6855371.html

 

Hope it will inspire other countries to do the same !!

 

 

[bo0m]

First good 'news' i read today! Go France!! Here in Croatia maybe our shit goverment adopt such type of law, in 7014th lmao.

[Raskin]

good......actually spending money pouring bleach and storing food that will spoil instead of doing the right thing reminds me of a person my wife stays in contact with from childhood that would rather throw something away then give it to a needy person..her karma is so bad everything she does turns out awful for her

[bigbro]

No supermarket should throw away food that is in date it's so wrong

[TheJuice]

this is the right way! i used to work in busy airport restaraunt, the ammount of edible food that got thrown away each day was unreal! such wastage! and yet they dont want to give it awaya, they'd rather send it to land fill? i mean wtf?

plus, supermarkets have a "sell by date" on stuff, but this is different from the "use by date" and even then, stuff is still good to eat after use by date, just means it wont be at its best after this date. most if not all the food i consume is "out of date" stuff.

[.KeLFOuTO!r.]

For once that they vote a law unanimously... A step in the right direction. It was a scandal to throw tons of food everyday and burn it so that no one could take it in the trash, while on the other side there are so many associations struggling to gather gifts to provide food to those who need it.

[P8rpl3h4z3]

thats awesome news, in here Finland supermarkets dont allow that and if employee give near expire date food somewhere s/he can be fired

[Alphaleader]

thats awesome news, in here Finland supermarkets dont allow that and if employee give near expire date food somewhere s/he can be fired

 

Was the same in France too...until this law !!

Hope one day it will be the same everywhere

[RedBaird]

this is the right way! i used to work in busy airport restaraunt, the ammount of edible food that got thrown away each day was unreal! such wastage! and yet they dont want to give it awaya, they'd rather send it to land fill? i mean wtf?

 

plus, supermarkets have a "sell by date" on stuff, but this is different from the "use by date" and even then, stuff is still good to eat after use by date, just means it wont be at its best after this date. most if not all the food i consume is "out of date" stuff.

 

 

thats awesome news, in here Finland supermarkets dont allow that and if employee give near expire date food somewhere s/he can be fired

 

 

That is a big reason for the "big throw aways".  The customers don't want to buy food that is near the "best by" or "sell by" dates on food.  

 

There is a movement now in the USA to make laws so that stores can give food to charities and can't be sued if somebody claims to have gotten sick from it.  Store owners and workers might want to put the food to good use, but they are afraid to.  Then again, some are just mean.  

 

This reminds me of a video on YouTube, where a group in Europe were trying to give away food at a camp of North African immigrants-refugees and a man with some English read the "BB-date" and thought they were being given expired food.  Many began opening and dumping the food onto the ground, to the great dismay of the woman organizer who kept saying that the food was good for two more years.  One nice fellow chased after their van to return an unopened case of food, but he still didn't eat it.

[.KeLFOuTO!r.]

That is a big reason for the "big throw aways".  The customers don't want to buy food that is near the "best by" or "sell by" dates on food.  

 

There is a movement now in the USA to make laws so that stores can give food to charities and can't be sued if somebody claims to have gotten sick from it.  Store owners and workers might want to put the food to good use, but they are afraid to.  Then again, some are just mean.  

 

This reminds me of a video on YouTube, where a group in Europe were trying to give away food at a camp of North African immigrants-refugees and a man with some English read the "BB-date" and thought they were being given expired food.  Many began opening and dumping the food onto the ground, to the great dismay of the woman organizer who kept saying that the food was good for two more years.  One nice fellow chased after their van to return an unopened case of food, but he still didn't eat it.

And from the markets' side, they don't want to give these short dates stuffs cause alot of people would then stop buying in their markets and wait for those "gifts"...

[Raskin]

yeah..always a downside..people need to prove they needy and apply to receive the food. before due dates were used when I was young on my own and poor I would just look at the food item and smell it ..if taste test was sharp I would not eat it. I never got sick...I find it strange that people in that example in Africa with such need would not know rancid from good for lots of items..the workers could have done a better job explaining the dates...I suppose

Edited February 11, 2016 by Raskin

[Kat0n]

Late decision, but good decision

[berlinerbol]

In Holland and I think in Europe there are 2 definitions by law for food; "best/sell by date" may still be sold or given to consumers/food banks after the date, and "use by date" that can't be used after date and is mostly used for cattle feed and such. 

Briefing on the subject from The European Parliament http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2015/548990/EPRS_BRI%282015%29548990_REV1_EN.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,-25,619

[Flible]

I suspect many supermarkets in France will downsize their stores to prevent having to sign that deal. It's not hard to do, because in my experience a lot of French supermarkets have a lot of unused space

[J o N]

I work at the Head Office of a big supermarket over here in the UK (Tesco) and we're trailing doing a similar thing in about 200 shops; there's an app the stores can use to contact any local charities, homeless shelters or food banks; and if any of them want to use the food that's about to go off they can either arrange to pick it up or get it delivered directly to them.

 

The way supermarkets work means there's always going to be waste on fresh food, but its great that people are getting serious about tackling it - although the real problem with food waste is at home; something like 50% of food that's thrown away (in the UK at least) is from people buying stuff and then throwing it away unused -  only a relatively small percentage of waste comes from the supermarket itself (something like 5%!) , with the rest comes from Suppliers, Producers and the supply chain, and then customers at home.