IThere are fewer than 500,000 farmers left in France. Half of them will retire within the next ten years. Fewer in number, poorly paid, insufficiently considered, many suffer, and this profession on which our food future depends is struggling to ensure its sustainability. They massively expressed their concern, their anger, their dismay. This anger calls out: what would our food future be without a strong and resilient agricultural France?
At the other end of the chain, consumers turn to brands with a simple question: “I want to know where what I eat comes from…” The answer to this question remains confusing, to say the least, and even deliberately opaque. To respond to this double injunction, displaying the origin on all food products proves to be the solution, as the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, publicly committed to on 1er FEBRUARY.
But to achieve this, it is necessary to evolve the regulatory framework. Indeed, the INCO (consumer information) regulation of the European Union prohibits member states from requiring the display of origin on other products. This regulation led to the rejection by French law of this display for milk and beer. This limits national initiatives aimed at promoting transparency on the origin of food products, and it leads to a diversity of displays which makes reading the origin confusing for consumers.
An “Origin logo”
A revision of the INCO regulation is therefore necessary to establish mandatory display of the origin of food products and thus respond to citizen demand for food transparency, while supporting European producers. Europe has been able to legislate on this point to protect its farmers, very recently on honey and more broadly by creating an obligation to display the origin on certain foods such as meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish or even wine.
Today, there are several mentions to promote the presence of a French ingredient in a product. But no indication specifies the origin of the other ingredients used in the recipe, which can prove misleading for the consumer. Likewise, a product can be made in France and promoted for this with a tricolor flag, even though all of the ingredients are not of French origin.
The En vérité collective, a recognized association of general interest which brings together nearly sixty food brands, wanted to assess the real impact on purchases of clear and harmonized display of origin.
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