France’s new food strategy targets ready-made meals and increased plant-based consumption
4 março 2026
France has published its long-awaited National Strategy for Food, Nutrition and Climate (SNANC), which sets targets for the French food sector to achieve by 2030. It lays out policies that the French government will further develop and explore, and commits France to pursuing the strategy’s objectives at the EU level.
The SNANC sets a national objective to increase consumption of pulses, fruits, vegetables and whole grains, to ensure “sufficient and limited” consumption of fish and dairy products, and to limit the consumption of red meat and processed meats, particularly imports. When meat is eaten, it should be local and high quality: grass-fed beef, for example. The strategy aims to address the fact that 87% of French adults do not eat enough pulses for their nutritional needs, 72% do not eat enough fruits and vegetables, 32% eat too much red meat and 63% eat too many processed meats. It also aims to address the environmental impacts of meat production, including deforestation to produce soy for animal feed, and methane emissions from livestock.
The strategy includes dedicated action on ready-made meals: France will look at incentivising companies that sell ready-made meals to reformulate their products to bring them in line with dietary recommendations, including increasing the content of pulses, fruits, vegetable and whole grains, and limiting the content of meat. This echoes the recommendation that Fern and 10 other consumer, health and environmental NGOs made in our 2024 report, which revealed significant public health and environmental benefits, if the EU were to adopt such a measure.
The strategy also commits France to setting maximum thresholds for salt, sugar and fat in processed foods, and to fix these in collective agreements with businesses, pursuing legislation if the voluntary approach does not work. It commits to tightening health and sustainability requirements on food sold in public canteens, to protect children from advertising of unhealthy food, and to legally require transparency from food companies about the percentage of sustainable and high-quality food that they sell. Finally, it aims to support the French legume sector by increasing demand for legumes and developing the value chain.
These are all recommendations that should also be pursued at the EU level as a way to combat public health crises, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. The EU should also look at incentivising reformulation of unhealthy foods, in particular ready-made meals. Its forthcoming review of the Public Procurement Directive should ensure that public canteens sell healthy and sustainable foods, and move to restrict marketing of unhealthy foods to children. It should also promote the European protein crop sector in the forthcoming EU Protein Plan.
Categorias: News, Forest Watch, Meat consumption
