MILAN – Supermarkets obliged to donate expiring food to organizations that distribute it to the indigent; restaurants and bistros incentivized to distribute ‘doggy bags,’ the schiscettes for leftovers to take home. In the wake of the climate agreement, France stands as a vanguard country in the fight against food waste and seeks to provide more relief to the 3.5 million citizens who depend for their livelihood on the handout of free meals.
On Dec. 10, the law that is supposed to reduce the approximately 8 million tons of food that goes into the bin each year was passed, and in the first days of this 2016 the final enactment of the device is expected after passage in the Senate. It targets supermarkets of at least 400 square meters (thus, large) and obliges them to turn over to charitable organizations food close to the date by which it is “preferable” to consume it, or to turn it into animal feed or even compost. To make this actually happen, there is a requirement for agreement with the organizations, and failure to establish these protocols can cost up to 75 thousand euros in fines or two years in prison.
As the UpWorthy blog notes, according to the United Nations if food waste were a state, it would rank third globally in greenhouse gas production. That’s why this is a highly pertinent measure in the season of Cop21: it moves beyond the phase in which supermarkets were obliged to bin excess food on the shelves when it expired.
This is not, as mentioned, the only French innovation on food and waste prevention. In fact, MailOnline and Telegraph tell of new regulations imposed on restaurants that serve at least 180 meals a day. Indeed, customers will be allowed to ask for uneaten food to take home, in the ‘doggy bags’ that transalpine restaurant purists have always looked at with much skepticism. Indeed, many insiders believe that – made the law – there will be to
overcome the reluctance of domestic customers, who see schiscetta as a uniquely American habit. Polls say 75 percent of French people favor the idea, but as many as 70 percent have never resorted to the option of taking food home.
Republic.co.uk.
