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Use your luncheon vouchers to buy fruit & vegetables
France
Tuesday 12 May 2009
In March the French Parliament adopted an amendment allowing fruit and vegetables to be bought with “tickets-restaurants”, the French equivalent of luncheon vouchers.
During the examination of the proposal, Valérie Boyer, an MP from the UMP party, justified extending the use of tickets-restaurants to greengrocers by saying, “it will make it easier for the 2.7 million employees who receive them to consume five servings of fruit and vegetables per day, as recommended by the National Nutrition and Health Plan (PNNS)”.
The origin of this amendment is Valérie Boyer’s priority of making fruit and vegetables accessible to all, as today they have become almost a luxury item due to their ever-increasing price.
Ticket-restaurants were originally designed for employees of companies that didn’t have their own canteen. Since 1988 they have been extended to cover take-away meals and ready meals, including those sold in supermarkets, and no longer only hot meals.
The National Union of Greengrocers (UNFD) welcomes this initiative because “in France, the recommendation to eat five servings of fruit and vegetables per day is well known but not being practiced by consumers. There are a number of obstacles to consumption, such as the price barrier, changing lifestyles and the development of eating outside the home”, UNFD declared to the press. In May this measure should be adopted by the Senate, and to this end UNFD is mobilising its 15,000 shopkeeper-members to lobby senators and encourage them to endorse it.
The origin of this amendment is Valérie Boyer’s priority of making fruit and vegetables accessible to all, as today they have become almost a luxury item due to their ever-increasing price.
Ticket-restaurants were originally designed for employees of companies that didn’t have their own canteen. Since 1988 they have been extended to cover take-away meals and ready meals, including those sold in supermarkets, and no longer only hot meals.
The National Union of Greengrocers (UNFD) welcomes this initiative because “in France, the recommendation to eat five servings of fruit and vegetables per day is well known but not being practiced by consumers. There are a number of obstacles to consumption, such as the price barrier, changing lifestyles and the development of eating outside the home”, UNFD declared to the press. In May this measure should be adopted by the Senate, and to this end UNFD is mobilising its 15,000 shopkeeper-members to lobby senators and encourage them to endorse it.
On the other hand, restaurant owners are feeling short-changed and lament the breadth of use of these vouchers, which have already lost their specific role. For Didier Chenet, President of the 2nd largest union of restaurant owners in France, speaking to L’Express magazine, the ticket-restaurant “is going to become paper money”, allowing the bearer to buy anything.
This measure follows the national plan to combat obesity and excess weight, whose priority is to alter citizens’ eating habits. It should increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables and at the same time help to support local shops.
