France has implemented a groundbreaking law requiring large food stores to donate unsold, edible food to charities, aiming to drastically reduce food waste, but practical implementation faces significant challenges for both retailers and charities.
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it's time for Focus now here in France
the new law got passed just over six
months ago that was the first of its
kind in the world the law requires all
food stores over a certain size to give
away food at the end of the day that
would otherwise be thrown in the garbage
that is if a charity shows up with a
formal request in France Alone 7 million
tons of products that are just hours
past their sale by date get chucked out
every year the law change has been
hailed by many but how easy is it
proving to abide by in practice our
report it's an everyday gesture but for
French supermarkets throwing away food
should be a thing of the past it's been
a year since France's environment
minister sigen royel went to war with
food waste out of that would come a law
obliging supermarkets to donate to
charitable organizations so where are we
activists like an anti-waste Commando
Max breaks into Supermarket bins at
night inside the activists find all
things some food has passed its use by
25 minutes later they leave their bags full
wow according to these activists nothing
has changed across France safe and
edible food is still being thrown away
to draw attention to the problem
the next day they redistribute the food
by this was supposed to be given away
rather than thrown I don't know if the
law has passed but that was the idea but
I see that they're throwing away as much
as ever does that shock you well of
course so what does the law say in fact
supermarkets have until February 2017 to
stop throwing away food Goods thereafter
they could face a fine of 2,000
€750 stores must donate to Charities
first then for food that's more damaged
to animals or to upgrader plants to turn into
into
energy it's a great idea but one they're
struggling to apply in the
supermarket every day before opening
employees remove food from the shelves
these expired yesterday so we can't sell them
them
damaged
all end up in the bin that's €75,000 a
year worth of losses and a lot of guilty
consciences every day it's the same we
throw stuff away does it bother you well
yes it
does the store manager would like to
donate he contacted various local
charities the problem is they don't have
the resources to fulfill his
request the Charities can come buy the
shop every day to collect and I need to
get rid of products every day I haven't
been able to find an organization with a
solution but now intermediaries have
emerged to help
supermarkets in this store food removed from
from
driver instead of the bin the food will
go in this refrigerated truck and then
onto Charities organizations that more
often than not don't have the right
means of
Transport even when we're giving away we
must be able to ensure the products we
provide are in a sanitary
condition this is how the store donates
85 tons of food per year they may pay
for the service but it's still a viable
solution the shop recovers 60% of the
value of the donated food in
taxback it's helped that Charities
welcome too
this food bank has seen donations
increased by 10% this year an influx
that is presenting new challenges for these
these
organizations there are 5,000 Food Bank
Volunteers in France but to do a good
job we need almost 1,000 more so there
are shortages now yes it's a huge
challenge today only one in 10 of unsold
food products is
donated supermarkets continue to produce
nearly 1 and A2 million tons of food waste
waste I
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