“We have been working on this for several months. We had to act. Because the – optional – mention on the ‘homemade’ cards, a label created in 2014, is complicated and therefore remains little used”announces the minister in the columns of this new Sunday newspaper.
“It is impossible for the land of gastronomy not to clearly inform the consumer,” according to the minister who wishes to bring “more transparency, for everyday customers and tourists alike”.
“It is also good for the morale of restaurateurs who go to great lengths to offer home-cooked meals to their customers, while the rise in food prices and energy costs has not spared them”she continues.
What is considered “homemade”?
According to the government“homemade” “allows you to report dishes cooked or processed on site using fresh or raw products or traditional cooking products (oil, butter, bread, etc.). Its aim is to distinguish artisanal dishes from dishes or ingredients industrial, ready to use, purchased in supermarkets or from a wholesaler, reheated or assembled”.
There are two products that can be used in a “homemade” dish:
– noise products (raw) “which were received by the restorer without having been modified beforehand and in particular by mixing with another product or by prior heating”;
– non-raw products “that the consumer does not expect to see carried out by the restaurateur himself” such as smoked fish, rillettes and fish eggs, cold meats, with the exception of terrines and pâtés, cheeses, milk, bread, flours, chocolate, etc.
Please note: a “homemade” dish is not necessarily an artisanal dish. It can in fact be produced in large quantities industrially (chain restaurants, collective catering), and not by an artisan.
A mention in place since 2014
Since July 2014, the mention “home made”, allowing the identification of dishes prepared on site from raw products, is required by all commercial, traditional, chain and fast food establishments. The system was extended to voluntary collective restaurants in 2018.
The establishment of this label, accompanied by a logo made up of a saucepan on which a house roof is placed, had been the subject of long debates, particularly in the profession, on the exact definition of a “raw product”. Frozen products were finally included, with the exception of frozen fries.
According to La Tribune Dimanche, “a few weeks of consultation are still planned before the opening of a parliamentary debate” and new consultations with organizations representing the sector are planned to define the terms of the future label.
“In particular, we will need to think regarding the nature of future control mechanisms. But we must first be aligned with the desired goal, because there will inevitably be dissatisfied people”Guillaume Karbarian, En Marche MP and member of the Economic Affairs Committee, responsible for SMEs and VSEs, told the newspaper.
