France bans food waste from supermarkets

RobertKK · 05-02-2016 01:36AM #1

A law has passed in France that makes it illegal for French supermarkets to throw away food that is fit for human consumption.
The food has to go to charities and food banks to be distributed to those in need.
Campaigners in France who helped make this a reality want this food waste policy to be enacted across the EU.
I am all for it. It is a moral crime to throw away good food when there are people who go to bed hungry and wake up hungry with little to eat.
France dumps 7 million tonnes of food annually.
It will also be illegal for supermarkets to deliberately destroy food.
Supermarkets of a certain size are required to sign up or face a €75,000 fine or two years in jail.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/french-law-forbids-food-waste-by-supermarkets

Do people who work in supermarkets get to take home any of this food?

The Randy Riverbeast · 05-02-2016 01:42AM

I know tesco staff aren't allowed to take any. It's to prevent people from hiding food so when it goes off its thrown out.

It really is a waste to just bin a lot of that food. Either give it to a charity or just let anyone take it.

hatrickpatrick · 05-02-2016 01:43AM

I mean this is just plain common sense, it really astounds me that they have to be coerced into doing this. Particularly when you consider that waste disposal costs them money while donating food is free. Eejits.

Does that kind of thing go on here, edible food being thrown away at the end of the day if it hasn't been bought? Baguettes, Crossaints, etc? Pretty much all baked goods, while unfit for commercial sale after a day, can be easily heated or even fully toasted to "un-stale" the food. Throwing it away is lunacy.

JackieBauer · 05-02-2016 01:44AM

They have bigger 'fish' to fry with all the dirt in Calais, let's be fair

Ficheall · 05-02-2016 01:52AM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

I mean this is just plain common sense, it really astounds me that they have to be coerced into doing this. Particularly when you consider that waste disposal costs them money while donating food is free. Eejits.

Does that kind of thing go on here, edible food being thrown away at the end of the day if it hasn't been bought? Baguettes, Crossaints, etc? Pretty much all baked goods, while unfit for commercial sale after a day, can be easily heated or even fully toasted to "un-stale" the food. Throwing it away is lunacy.

They throw out loads of stuff here. They're afraid of legal repercussions if they give out of date food away to charity, etc.
A friend of mine dumpster-dives regularly - baked goods, frozen stuff, meat, drinks, cheese, eggs, pizza.. It makes up a substantial portion of what he lives off.
It's illegal to take the food from the bins - the shops generally have them locked etc, and have security keep an eye out to see no one is taking the stuff. Sad state of affairs...

fleet_admiral · 05-02-2016 02:06AM

How can a supermarket go to jail for 2 years?

Herb Powell · 05-02-2016 02:08AM

Wasted food helps ISIS

JackieBauer · 05-02-2016 02:11AM

Herb Powell wrote: »

Wasted food helps ISIS

Only if it's halal

Cookie_Monster · 05-02-2016 02:24AM

it'll be interest to see if sell by dates suddenly get a bit longer to compensate.

even if food does have to be thrown out as unfit to eat, simply dumping it is such a massive waste. collect it and get energy out of it somehow, burn it, throw it in a digester, use it as animal feed if not quite up to human standards etc

Cookie_Monster · 05-02-2016 02:24AM

it'll be interest to see if sell by dates suddenly get a bit longer to compensate.

even if food does have to be thrown out as unfit to eat, simply dumping it is such a massive waste. collect it and get energy out of it somehow, burn it, throw it in a digester, use it as animal feed if not quite up to human standards etc

Food banks and charities will, for their part, be obliged to collect and stock the food in properly hygienic conditions and distribute it with “dignity”. This means the food must be given out at a proper food bank or centre, where human contact and conversation is fostered, rather than, for example, simply organised as handouts on the street.

This bit of the law is also really good thinking

Graces7 · 05-02-2016 09:39AM

Ficheall wrote: »

They throw out loads of stuff here. They're afraid of legal repercussions if they give out of date food away to charity, etc.
A friend of mine dumpster-dives regularly - baked goods, frozen stuff, meat, drinks, cheese, eggs, pizza.. It makes up a substantial portion of what he lives off.
It's illegal to take the food from the bins - the shops generally have them locked etc, and have security keep an eye out to see no one is taking the stuff. Sad state of affairs...

I have loved ones in Canada feeding the rough sleepers. The supermarkets there have "strict" health and safety laws too BUT they put food " waste" in a clean dumpster and leave it unlocked immediately after closing o we can collect it. WISH I could do that; most of my own food comes from the reduced counters and is fine.. tesco say they are doing more to feed the needy on their web pages. I remember once in London being told the street dwellers were tired of strawberries and cream as M and S were giving all their excess to the feeding centres..waste is evil.

Graces7 · 05-02-2016 09:41AM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

it'll be interest to see if sell by dates suddenly get a bit longer to compensate.

even if food does have to be thrown out as unfit to eat, simply dumping it is such a massive waste. collect it and get energy out of it somehow, burn it, throw it in a digester, use it as animal feed if not quite up to human standards etc

This bit of the law is also really good thinking

During the war even table scraps were collected and used to feed pigs..and when I had hens they were fed table scraps, the few I generated!

Graces7 · 05-02-2016 09:44AM

Food banks and charities will, for their part, be obliged to collect and stock the food in properly hygienic conditions and distribute it with “dignity”. This means the food must be given out at a proper food bank or centre, where human contact and conversation is fostered, rather than, for example, simply organised as handouts on the street. Well OK in theory but please do not exclude hungry introverts or make conditions for being given food. .

seamus · 05-02-2016 10:05AM

Ficheall wrote: »

They throw out loads of stuff here. They're afraid of legal repercussions if they give out of date food away to charity, etc.

It's not even supermarkets afraid of charities, it's charities afraid of what they're giving out.

For my daughter's first birthday we had a little bit of a bash in a local club. Family, friends and neighbours for a few hours, music, food on the tables, etc.

At the end of the night we had a pile of good sandwiches left over, freshly made by the mother-in-law. Having worked in Superquinn as a kid and knowing that all of their baked goods were collected by a charity at the end of the day, I rang up Dublin Simon to see where to bring our sandwiches for the rounds that evening. Nope.
The woman I spoke to said that if it were up to her she'd take them all, but elf & safety rules mean that they can't take them in case any homeless people get poisoned.

Considering that so many homeless people will already have veins full of drugs or alcohol, worrying about a tiny risk of food poisoning doesn't seem like a good risk assessment to me.

What France have done is of course a good idea, but I can't help but feel the actual scope will be limited. Fresh foods like baked goods can be donated, but anything that's past its use-by date will go in the bin regardless.
Perhaps the main aim here is to stop them binning stuff that's past its "best before", but is still otherwise perfectly good.

smash · 05-02-2016 10:07AM

fleet_admiral wrote: »

How can a supermarket go to jail for 2 years?

They build a big wall around it and nobody's allowed leave!

mad muffin · 05-02-2016 10:50AM

I can tell you my local super valu doesn't throw away food. The amount of times I've bought expired food there… :rolleyes:

IvyTheTerrible · 05-02-2016 11:56AM

seamus wrote: »

It's not even supermarkets afraid of charities, it's charities afraid of what they're giving out.

For my daughter's first birthday we had a little bit of a bash in a local club. Family, friends and neighbours for a few hours, music, food on the tables, etc.

At the end of the night we had a pile of good sandwiches left over, freshly made by the mother-in-law. Having worked in Superquinn as a kid and knowing that all of their baked goods were collected by a charity at the end of the day, I rang up Dublin Simon to see where to bring our sandwiches for the rounds that evening. Nope.
The woman I spoke to said that if it were up to her she'd take them all, but elf & safety rules mean that they can't take them in case any homeless people get poisoned.

Considering that so many homeless people will already have veins full of drugs or alcohol, worrying about a tiny risk of food poisoning doesn't seem like a good risk assessment to me.

What France have done is of course a good idea, but I can't help but feel the actual scope will be limited. Fresh foods like baked goods can be donated, but anything that's past its use-by date will go in the bin regardless.
Perhaps the main aim here is to stop them binning stuff that's past its "best before", but is still otherwise perfectly good.

I think it's to stop practises that certain supermarkets over here were partaking in such as throwing food in the skips and then dumping bleach on it so no one could rob it.

Graces7 · 05-02-2016 02:33PM

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

I think it's to stop practises that certain supermarkets over here were partaking in such as throwing food in the skips and then dumping bleach on it so no one could rob it.

Words fail :mad:

suicide_circus · 05-02-2016 03:36PM

Brilliant move, we need this law here immediately

Graces7 · 05-02-2016 03:43PM

I came across this site recently; has anyone seen this at work? http://www.tesco.com/food-collection/ This especially rather than donations http://www.fareshare.org.uk/

maudgonner · 05-02-2016 04:04PM

Graces7 wrote: »

I came across this site recently; has anyone seen this at work? http://www.tesco.com/food-collection/ This especially rather than donations http://www.fareshare.org.uk/

No experience of those ones Grace, but I heard about this food bank on the radio. They work with supermarkets (Lidl in particular) and are hoping to partner with more in the future.
ETA: As well as giving out food parcels, they're going to have cafés where people can benefit from social interaction as well as a meal.

I've also seen this company's trucks collecting in Galway, they manage the disposal of food waste for supermarkets - i.e. the stuff that goes in the skip. There are pretty strict regulations around it I think.

ThisRegard · 05-02-2016 04:48PM

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

I mean this is just plain common sense, it really astounds me that they have to be coerced into doing this. Particularly when you consider that waste disposal costs them money while donating food is free. Eejits.

Tesco in Ireland uses a company called Food Bank I think is their name, Tesco also helped fund them. Not sure if they use another company but they organise collections of food anyway.

I used to work in a place that gave their waste to farmers for their pigs. At the time some charitys snubbed their noses at it, because even though it was edible it was out of date. You also have the issue of people eating this stuff and possibly getting ill claiming against the place they got the food from.

Edit: I see Seamus was up and awake much longer before me and made the same point.

ofcork · 05-02-2016 05:23PM

Vincent de paul in cork are doing something along these lines collecting from shops musgraves etc and giving it to the needy.

This Fat Girl Runs · 05-02-2016 06:13PM

There's also Food Cloud, who have help shops and charities link up so food can be donated rather than wasted.

ThisRegard · 05-02-2016 06:17PM

Food Cloud, that's the place I couldn't think of.

Poochie05 · 05-02-2016 06:32PM

ofcork wrote: »

Vincent de paul in cork are doing something along these lines collecting from shops musgraves etc and giving it to the needy.

In Cork there's Bia Food Initiative www.biafi.ie and they work with local charities like SVP and others

Oranage2 · 05-02-2016 07:36PM

Graces7 wrote: »

Words fail :mad:

when I worked in a supermarket they had one waste skip that everything went into, so food would go in as well as damaged cleaning produ like bleach. Maybe it wasn't done on purpose.

ThisRegard · 05-02-2016 08:41PM

Oranage2 wrote: »

when I worked in a supermarket they had one waste skip that everything went into, so food would go in as well as damaged cleaning produ like bleach. Maybe it wasn't done on purpose.

I think she meant over in France is where that happened.

France bans food waste from supermarkets

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