Anti-waste law in France: mandatory doggy bag for restaurants

2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 19:13

Since May 2015 i French supermarkets they are required by state law to avoid food waste.

Each point of sale with an area of more than 400 square meters is required to donate to third sector entities, using the voluntary network, products that are expiring or unsold otherwise destined to end up in the garbage.

Not doing it systematically can cost up to 75 thousand euros fine or two years' imprisonment.

And after the supermarkets, now it's up to the big restaurants.

To be precise, the restaurants that serve at least 180 meals a day, where customers are now entitled to ask for uneaten foods to take them home in the doggy bag (let's call it a schiscetta) for leftovers.

The measure is part of an initiative by the French government to halve food waste by 2025, which for French restaurants is equivalent to about one million tons a year. Thus France stands as a pioneering country in the fight against food waste.

There remains a doubt, however, in a country where there is not even a specific word, the French literally say "the doggy bag", where the cultural block against the request to take home leftover food or wine when you go to the restaurant resists (like after all in Italy), despite being a widespread habit in Anglo-Saxon countries, will the law be able to overcome the reluctance of routine French customers?

If it depended solely on the numbers, the answer would be negative: according to polls, 70% of French people have never asked to take leftover food home at the restaurant.