France: the anti-food waste law, a model to follow?

In Templeuve-en-Pévèle, near Lille, France, Thomas Pocher is the director of a Leclerc hypermarket. With his teams, he takes care every morning to go around the shelves to remove products that are approaching their expiration date. Objective: sell them at a discount or donate them to charities.

Forbidden to throw away!

This is because the 2016 law is clear: grocery stores of more than 400 m2 are prohibited from throwing away and destroying food that is still good for consumption. Retailers are required to sell them or to have agreements with food aid associations.

We sell a lot of products here, explains Mr. Pocher: between 35,000 and 40,000 tonnes per year. So per week, it’s a lot and we’re very efficient, we only have 1% of unsold items. But 1% is a ton per day! What we weren’t aware of before was that we were destroying these products without thinking.

We threw everything away! notes Christine Deleurence, the anti-waste manager at Leclerc. Everything was going in the dumpsters. Every morning, she decides which products she will place on the shelves anti-gasplaced right at the entrance to the store. Customers love it.

Leftover pastries, for example. I’m going to put them at 30% off, they’re still good until the 20th [novembre] and customers can freeze them. They jump on it when it opens.

The “anti-waste” zone is no longer a somewhat dark and neglected corner of the store. It’s part of the ”must have” that we have on the market today and it is important to offer it.

A bold law

The law will be nine years old in February. It was the very first French law, but also worldwide, to combat food waste.underlines Laurence Gouthière, head of studies on the fight against food waste at the government agency for ecological transition.

And since it was the very first law, it put a spotlight on the subject. It also triggered a whole series of so-called anti-waste actions. And the best known is clearly the gift. The other element is the anti-waste shelves. I don’t think there’s a supermarket in France that doesn’t offer this.

In Canada, more than 1.3 million tonnes of food is wasted in grocery stores each year and could be distributed to people in need.

In France, it’s half as much. And, in the wake of the Garot law, the country has set itself the objective of reducing waste by half by 2030.

50% is very ambitious, recognizes Laurence Gouthière. It’s really easy to reduce waste by 20%, she illustrates. Just talk about it, just create attention on the subject because it’s a lot of common sense, wasteful. But this 20% to 50% level is where it’s difficult.

According to Thomas Pocher, we are all a bit involved and we need to come out of denial – manufacturers, traders and consumers – about the fact that, yes, we generate a bit of waste and yes, we can improve its impact.

At Leclerc in Templeuve-en-Pévèle, 90% of unsold items are now recovered. And 30% to 40% of these unsold items are automatically donated to associations.

Tax incentives

The law provides support for merchants who donate to organizations. For Thomas Pocher, it also means receiving a tax credit in return. A saving of 30% to 40%, interesting for the company.

This is good practice for everyone. The need for food aid has increased by almost 200% over the past 15 years.

The limits of the law

The law only concerns establishments of more than 400 m2. Small businesses can continue to throw away without being disturbed. And the fines are low: a little over $5,000 per establishment. A handful of small change for the big chains. Additionally, it is difficult to catch offenders.

That said, for the director of the hypermarket, the law has had its effect. All the major retailers have embarked on the promotion of anti-waste zones and donations to associations.

France even created a label in 2023 which indicates to customers that their grocer is making the best efforts to stop wasting. A question of transparency.

For Thomas Pocher, the law forced traders to open their eyes and take initiatives that affect the entire food chain.

I hope that in Canada there are also actors, restaurateurs, merchants or others, who take ownership of things by saying: but obviously, this is what we have always felt and this is what we we have to do on a daily basis.