Would making it illegal for supermarkets to throw out edible food help reduce waste?

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It’s a move meant to cut down the amount of food that ends up in the garbage; France is making it illegal for large supermarkets to throw out anything that is still edible.

Sylvain Charlebois is a consumer studies professor with the University of Guelph. He isn’t confident a similar law in Canada would do much more good than what is already being done.

He says some people in Europe are questioning how the law will actually make a difference, claiming the law only targets about five percent of all food that’s wasted.

Charlebois adds consumers waste the most, and implementing the law means more bureaucracy, policing, and surveillance.

“When you talk to community-based organizations and when you talk to food banks across the country, including BC, I’d say that they would agree that most retailers actually do have agreements with their organizations, so the big three, Loblaw, Sobeys, and Metro are very, very generous and very proactive in trying to repurpose their unsold foods and to support community-based organizations. It’s already happening, so even if you actually do implement a similar law in Canada, I’m not entirely convinced it’s actually going to make much of a difference, to be honest.”

Charlebois says we could see a difference if more perishable foods were composted, pointing out lots of unsold foods can’t be repurposed, but can be composted.

“Such a law will put more pressure on food retailers to manage their inventory more tightly… and if you look at France right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if down the road, you see more ‘out of stock’ signs in stores as a result of this new law, because retailers will just be too afraid of having too many unsold food products.”

He adds liability is a factor in some retailers’ hesitations.

“Food safety is top of mind for all food businesses. The last thing a food business needs is a food recall, and so, for food retailers, food safety is a huge concern. To mitigate risks, they are very careful when they actually repurpose their foods or when they actually try to find a home for their unsold products. If there are too [many] risks, they just get rid of it.”

“With this new law in France, you’re basically enticing companies to give products to charities. But at the same time, you just don’t want a food recall so they may actually damage their own reputation as a result of this law. Moving forward, all companies will have to be very careful before doing anything,” he notes.

In France, chains will have to donate food to charity or allow it to become energy, compost or feed for animals.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today