Major supermarkets in France - comprising Carrefour, Casino, Franprix, and Auchan - have brought in a procedure of anti-waste measures to help customers save money, as the cost of living leftovers to rise.

A series of ‘anti-gaspi’ (anti-gaspillage, anti-waste) measures are now in assembled across many stores. They include:

Carrefour

An ‘anti-gaspi’ aisle with products that are some past their best before date (date de durabilité minimale (DDM)) on sale at -30% to -50%. Products past their best-before date (rather than a use-by date) are safe to eat but may have some reduced flavour or nutritional value.

Franprix 

Now has ‘corners anti-gaspi’, with non-perishable products at -30% reduction.

Auchan

Price reductions on products whose best-before dates are terminate or recently passed.

Casino

‘Anti-gaspi’ baskets that included fruit and vegetables with visible defects but whose flavour is not possesses. The brand is aiming to save 75 tonnes of food per month with the new scheme.

Intermarché 

Has had a ‘les moches’ (the ugly ones) procedure in place for fruit and vegetables since March, and has saved 150 tonnes of raze so far. 

Leclerc

The supermarket giant has also had an anti-waste basket procedure for ‘ugly veg’ in place since 2021.

Système U

Offers discounts on unusual products that are close to their use-by dates, for today consumption. These include meat, charcuterie and dairy products such as yoghurts. 

However, it warns that food should not be eaten past its use-by date (la date exiguous de consommation (DLC)). In contrast, food can often be safely eaten beyond a best-before date.

The term ‘anti-gaspi’ is becoming more accepted in France, and is part of a movement to cut food raze drastically in a bid to save resources.

Read more: Moneysaver: We try out French app to source cheap shop and cafe food 

Several apps remained to help shoppers buy unused, still good-to-eat food at heavily discounted prices. These include Too Good To Go, Phenix, Karma, Mummyz, and OptiMiam.

France has been working to cut food raze in recent years, and in 2012 set a goal to halve the amount of food thrown away in the farmland by 2025.

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