France wages war on food waste with le doggy bag

France could force all restaurants to provide doggy bags, to cut down on waste and overcome traditional Gallic resistance to taking food home after eating out.

The radical plan to make ‘‘le doggy bag’’ compulsory in restaurants, bistros and cafes has been adopted by a parliamentary committee in an amendment to a wider food bill, which will be debated next month. The overall aim is to halve food waste by 2025.

While taking one’s leftovers home is commonplace in the United States and Britain, the French have been slow on the uptake, despite a law passed last year that ‘‘strongly recommends’’ restaurants to persuade customers to leave with the remains of their meal. An earlier campaign to promote such bags was a flop.

‘‘It’s true that in France there is a psychological barrier, but that’s also because consumers don’t dare ask [for a doggy bag] for fear of being turned down by restaurateurs,’’ said Berangere Abba, an MP from President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party and author of the amendment. ‘‘Habits must change.’’

Many French associate the practice with an ‘‘Anglo-Saxon’’ penchant for quantity over quality. In France, the traditional message to diners regarding their dish has been ‘‘love it or leave it’’.

Reactions to the proposed legislation by restaurateurs are mixed.

Hubert Jean, president of the restaurant branch of UMIH, the hotel trade industry union, said: ‘‘It’s not very judicious to constrain the entire profession with rules on buying doggy bags when it’s an Anglo-Saxon practice that isn’t really part of French culture.’’

Very few customers had asked for a doggy bag in the Blue Valentine restaurant in Paris, said manager Deborah Fitsch. ‘‘The first thing I’d do is change the name, because it suggests the food is for dogs, not humans,’’ she said.

– Telegraph Group

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