The French law on food donation

Written by Francesca Calo and Aqueel Wahga and adapted by Baglioni et al. (2017) and De Pieri and Calo (2023)

Food waste has become a salient issue at the global level, related both to environmental and social concerns. Food waste refers to the waste that takes place during industrial processing, distribution, and final consumption (BCFN, 2012). According to Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN), every year, over 20% of food produced in the European Union is wasted and each European citizen produces on average 58 kg of food waste, amounting to about 88 million tons of food wasted. This waste has an economic cost of 143 billion euros and accounts for 6% of the total emission of greenhouse gasses in the EU. The picture of food waste is at odds with the available evidence on food insecurity, a different and (at least in part) independent issue. Food security is defined as a situation when 'all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food' (FAO 2021, p. 190). According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), in 2020 hunger shot up in both absolute and proportional terms, and undernourishment is a reality for 9.9% of the world's population (FAO 2021). Actors from the state, the economy and the civil society spheres have taken multifaceted action to address the policy and ethical dilemmas related to securing access to nutritious food for all persons, while also avoiding food waste. Among the various options public and private actors have in tackling the issues related to food security is the collection and redistribution of food surplus.

Several countries have promoted different policies and laws for fostering food donation. Among them France stands out for having adopted a compelling regulation fostering food donation. In May 2015, the French National Assembly adopted legislation banning supermarkets from destroying unsold food and obliging them instead to donate such food to charities (Loi n. 2016-138 du 11 fvrier 2016). The new law mandates that all unsold but edible food should be donated to charities for immediate distribution to those in need. Food that is considered unsafe for human consumption is to be donated to farms for agricultural purposes. According to this legislation, supermarkets with a footprint of 400 sq. m. or more are obliged to sign a contract by July of 2016 with one or more charities for food redistribution, and relevant fines and penal consequences are set out in the case of non-compliance. In order to address food recovery issues in a systemic manner, the new French law will also introduce an education programme about food waste for schools and businesses, and it also aims to remove the 'best before' dates on fresh foods.

The French law has met with controversy and some negative reactions.

The Fdration du Commerce et de la Distribution, which represents large supermarkets, criticised the plan. Jacques Creyssel, the head of the organisation, said that: "The law is wrong in both target and intent, given that the big stores represent only 5% of food waste but have these new obligations (...) They are already the pre-eminent food donors, with more than 4,500 stores having signed agreements with aid groups" (BBC News, 2015).

Charities mostly welcomed the idea, but also expressed concern about ending up with more food than they would be able to handle. Jacques Bailet, the president of the French Federation of Food Banks (FFBA), commented that there is a risk that charities will not be able to cope: "Our food banks are going to need more staff, more lorries, more refrigerated rooms. But to get all that, we will need money - and money is pretty scarce these days". Members of the Gars' pilleurs (an action group founded in Lyon) issued a statement warning that simply obliging large food retailers to donate unsold food to charities could provide a "false and dangerous idea of a magic solution" to food waste. According to them, the new law would not address the issue of overproduction in the food industry, and therefore would not solve the wastage in food distribution chains (The Guardian, 2015).

This question asks you to use the concepts relating to the role of government in the modern economy, analyse the role of the French Government in the food donation market as described in the case study.

To start with, read the case study. Using information from the case study, identify how the French Government affected the food donation market, and discuss the positive and negative effects that the policies established might have.