French MPs want stores to give food leftovers to charity

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A group of French MPs has tabled a law that would make it compulsory for supermarkets to give unsold food still fit for consumption to charity.

Many supermarket chains in France already donate unsold produce to charities, but 63 MPs from across the political spectrum would like to see the practice enshrined in law.

Late last month, they tabled a draft bill making it compulsory for supermarkets with more than 1000sq m of floor space to give their "unsold but still consumable food products to at least one food charity".

Belgium became the first European country to introduce a similar law, in May.

The move followed proposals by the European Union to scrap compulsory "best before" labels on coffee, rice, dry pasta, hard cheeses, jams and pickles to help reduce the estimated 100 million tonnes of food wasted in Europe each year.

The French MPs believe that, despite a "national pact against food wastage" introduced in the country last year, measures preventing still-edible food being thrown away are insufficient.

They cited a World Food Organisation estimate that a third of the world's food products still fit for human consumption were "lost or wasted".

The MPs said they were targeting larger food-selling chains as their "logistics and important stock" made it easier for them to organise donations.

In France alone, each supermarket produces 200 tonnes of waste a year. Each French person throws away between 20kg and 30kg of food a year, 7kg of which is unopened when it hits the rubbish bin - about 400 ($633) of wasted food per home.

French supermarkets already hand over large amounts of unsold food to charity.

One, Secours Populaire, said half the meals it distributed to the poor last year came from big food stores.