A new label from the French government hopes to encourage caterers, retailers and wholesalers to actively work to reduce food waste, with the goal of halving waste in some sectors by 2025. 

Launched on 1st March during the 2023 Agricultural Show, France’s new national anti-food waste label has been created to make those working in sectors of the food industry think harder about – and in turn lessen –  the amount of binned products. 

France wastes almost nine million tonnes of food each year. According to the government, this new label will “encourage players in the food chain to save our planet’s resources, such as arable land or water, and to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gas”.  

A co-venture by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Ademe and AFNOR Normalisation, the attack on food waste is two pronged.  

Retailers and wholesalers are the primary focus 

The first sector to be targeted are the country’s large and medium-sized stores, wholesalers and catering trades such as butchers, bakers, greengrocers and the like. The aim here is to get them to halve their waste by 2025.   

Those who are making good progress can apply for a label. The labels can be placed in shop fronts and will be graded on a star system: one star means commitment, two means mastery and three will go to those showing exemplary practices.   

The second wave will affect the distribution and collective catering sectors, who will have until 2030 to cut excesses in half in terms of consumption, production, processing and catering.  

More information can be found here. 

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Photo source: Markus Spiske for Unsplash