Restaurants in France may be forced to label dishes not cooked from scratch

Chefs in France may be required to label dishes that have not been cooked from scratch under new government legislation.

Olivia Grégoire, minister for small and medium enterprises, trade, crafts and tourism under president Emmanuel Macron, told France’s Sunday paper, La Tribune Dimanche, that the mandatory initiative would be needed to protect diners.

She said it would enable restaurants that serve freshly cooked food to differentiate themselves, as well as preserve the status of traditional French gastronomy, which was added to the world’s intangible heritage list by UNESCO in 2010.

Grégoire hopes to introduce the labelling system on the menus of over 175,000 restaurants in France by no later than 2025.

“We have been working on it for several months," Grégoire told the paper. "We must act, because the optional mention on menus of ‘home-made’, a label created in 2014, is complicated and therefore remains little used.”

La Tribune Dimanche said the French government is planning to open a parliamentary debate on the topic, which will be followed by wider consultations with the sector.

Only 4% of France’s restaurants serve dishes entirely cooked from scratch, Alain Fontaine, president of the Association of Master Restaurateurs, told The Times.

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