France has introduced a new law that bans supermarkets from throwing away unsold food, Independent.co.uk reports.
Supermarkets will also be forbidden from spoiling unsold food; this was done so foragers would not get food poisoning if they ate the discarded food.
Instead, supermarkets will have to sign donation deals with charities, and if they break the new law then they could be fined up to €3,750.
Jacques Bailet from Banques Alimentaires, a network of food banks in France, welcomed the ruling, telling The Guardian, "we’ll be able to increase the quality and diversity of food we get and distribute."
"In terms of nutritional balance, we currently have a deficit of meat and a lack of fruit and vegetables. This will hopefully allow us to push for those products," he added.
Councillor Arash Derambarsh, who initially launched the petition that led to the new law, now wants the measure introduced all across the EU.
"The next step is to ask the president, François Hollande, to put pressure on Jean-Claude Juncker and to extend this law to the whole of the EU,” he said.
"This battle is only just beginning. We now have to fight food waste in restaurants, bakeries, school canteens and company canteens."
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Brian Dermody. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
