Worldwide, 1.3 billion tonnes of food end up in the trash, according to the United Nations. To combat this waste, British supermarkets Waitrose announced at the beginning of August that they were withdrawing the recommended consumption dates on nearly 500 products. “It is undoubtedly necessary, as the English do, to revisit” the notions of date of consumption in France, called on Friday August 5 on franceinfo Serge Papin, the former CEO of System U.
franceinfo: Is this deadline for optimal use of any use?
Serge Papin: These English supermarkets which have taken this initiative, mainly for fruit and vegetables, sell a lot of pre-packaged products. There is therefore necessarily a deadline for optimal use, which is not the case in France. If we pull the thread of this initiative and try to take advantage of it, I think there is something to be done.
“There is first of all an issue of purchasing power because the Ademe [l’Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie] estimates that in France, the market value of what is wasted is 16 billion euros per year. If we look for what is thrown directly into the trash because the date has passed, it is around 1.6 billion euros.”
Serge Papin, former CEO of System Uat franceinfo
In France, there is a complexity of the injunctions since you have the expiry date (DLC) which, theoretically, is an imperative injunction, but which needs to be reconsidered. For example, it is possible to consume yogurts widely after this date. Afterwards, you have the best before date (BDD), for example for eggs, which can also be eaten long after this date has expired. Finally, you have this famous expiry date of optimal use (DLUO). And there too, for example for pasta, we know that we can eat it without any problem two years later if it is in an appropriate place. We must probably, as the English do, revisit that.
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— franceinfo (@franceinfo) August 5, 2022
Shouldn’t we simply review the legislation on these dates to avoid waste?
For certain products, I think that an imperative date must be kept, such as for example for minced steaks which can become toxic from a certain date. For the rest, it would be better to put the date of production in bulk. We leave the responsibility to people as we leave them when they buy fruits and vegetables. It would save some of that wastage. With the DLUO, people throw away because they think they can no longer consume.
Who do you need to convince? Is it the food industry or is it the consumer who is reassured to have a date on his product?
You have to get everyone around the table. We must include the food industry, distribution, consumers and then state services. Basically, all that dates from the 1980s. It’s true that we wanted to fight against food poisoning. So we took drastic measures and it paid off. However, we have undoubtedly gone to extreme positions and we can revisit them. Moreover, when we take the example of yogurt, it should be noted that when they are sent to overseas territories, they benefit from different dates to correct the transport problem. This therefore proves that there are solutions for these territories that could also work in mainland France.