While France has pledged to halve its food waste by 2025, 10 million tonnes of food are still thrown away every year, according to the French Environment and Control Agency. energy (ADEME). The figure includes not only food produced for human consumption and marketed, but also animal feed production, as well as products for other industrial uses, and those not harvested from the fields. The food thrown away amounts to 5.5 million tonnes per year if you count production for human consumption alone. "
Enough to feed 10 million people for a year, more than the share of the French population in need
», Explain the results of the Opinion Way and Smartway poll, a company committed to the fight against food waste in stores.
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A persistent waste
While nearly one in two French people feel guilty when throwing away food, this does not prevent half of them from wasting at least one type of product every month, such as bread, fruit or vegetables. .
The appearance of the products is the main reason for this mess.
Thus, 59% of French people throw them away when they taste or smell bad, when they are damaged or when their appearance does not inspire confidence.
The use-by date is also an important indicator for many French people: 32% of them throw away a product for which this date has passed or is close, even though 85% of French people admit having already consumed an expired product.
And finally one in five French people admit wasting food for lack of foresight, by cooking too much or buying too much.
One in five French people throws away food for lack of foresight.
OpinionWay-Smartway study "The French & Food Waste" - May 2021
The older ones are more vigilant than the younger ones
Yet 94% of French people say they are careful not to waste food, and one in two French people practice at least five anti-waste actions on a daily basis, which include sorting products in the fridge according to the use-by dates (60% des Français), freezing fresh produce upon purchase, and cooking in smaller quantities so as not to throw away.
Another interesting point is that eight out of ten people think they do better than others when it comes to food waste. Thus, the French estimate to waste on average 15 euros per month by throwing away food, but estimate this figure at 45 euros for the others. One thing is certain: the elderly do better than the young, since "
18/24 year olds throw 2 to 3 times more than 65 year olds and over, all types of products combined
". 40% of the latter say they never throw away products, compared to 3% of the youngest. A gap that the health crisis has only widened. Indeed, if two-thirds of French people think that the pandemic has not influenced their behavior in terms of food waste, 6% of them believe they throw more, with a clear preponderance of young people.
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More effort required
Finally, the French consider that the fight against food waste concerns distributors as much as consumers.
Among the possible solutions, 92% of French people would like brands to offer more discounts on quickly expired products.
Overall, more than eight in ten French people find that the efforts of major brands to reduce food waste are not sufficient, that the regulations in this area are not strict enough, and say they are ready to favor a store displaying an anti-waste policy.
For 45% of the French, however, food waste is inevitable, and cannot be totally eliminated.
