EGalim: France’s food law explained simply, what has been mandatory and since when

The EGalim law (No 2018-938, pour l’Équilibre des relations commerciales dans le secteur agricole et alimentaire — on balanced commercial relations in the agricultural and food sector) is a French law that public debate often reduces to its most visible strand — the organic thresholds in collective catering, covered in our guide on becoming a canteen supplier. The law in fact brings together several distinct measures, which came into force on different dates and were supplemented by later texts (EGalim 2 in 2021, EGalim 3 in 2023). This guide gives the full overview.

The collective-catering strand

Since 1 January 2022: at least 50% sustainable and quality products by purchase value, of which at least 20% organic products, in the meals served by public collective catering (school canteens, hospitals, administrations). The detail of the thresholds and their calculation is covered in our dedicated guide.

The contracts and prices strand

This strand, less publicised but just as structural, aims to rebalance commercial negotiation between producers, processors and retailers:

• Building the price “forwards” — the contract between a producer and their first buyer must take production costs as the starting point of the negotiation, rather than starting from the final selling price and working back down.
• Production-cost indicators, published by sector (inter-branch organisations, producer organisations), serve as an objective reference in this negotiation.
• The non-negotiability of the agricultural raw material in commercial negotiations with retailers — a principle reinforced by the successive EGalim 2 and EGalim 3 laws, in response to the workarounds observed in the first years of application.

The promotions and below-cost resale threshold strand

Two measures regulate downstream commercial practices:

• Limits on promotions — a cap in value (a maximum 34% discount) and in volume (a maximum 25% of forecast turnover) for food products, to avoid deflationary pressure being passed back upstream to producers.
• Raising the below-cost resale threshold (SRP+10) — a 10% uplift in the threshold (the seuil de revente à perte, or SRP) below which a retailer may not resell a food product, intended to free up a margin that is in theory passed back upstream in the supply chain.

Both measures have been repeatedly evaluated as to their real effect on farm income, and successively extended by later laws — their initially experimental status has been renewed rather than made permanent from the outset.

The information and anti-waste strand

• The obligation, for collective catering, to offer a vegetarian option at regular intervals on menus.
• Stronger obligations regarding assessment and the fight against food waste, covered in more detail in our dedicated guide.
• The ban on disposable plastic tableware in eat-in catering, a strand that overlaps with the AGEC law (France’s anti-waste and circular economy law) covered in our guide on packaging.

EGalim 2 and EGalim 3: what has been added since 2018

In its first years of application, the original law revealed mechanisms for getting round the non-negotiability of the agricultural raw material — hence two corrective texts:

• EGalim 2 (2021): strengthens the ring-fencing of the agricultural raw-material price in the contract, and regulates more strictly the renegotiation clauses during the contract.
• EGalim 3 (2023): adjusts the calendar of the annual commercial negotiations and specifies the penalties applicable in the event of non-compliance.

Common mistakes

• Reducing EGalim to the canteen strand alone, ignoring the contracts strand that directly affects a producer’s commercial negotiation.
• Relying on the 2018 law alone without taking into account the adjustments made by EGalim 2 and 3, notably on the non-negotiability of the agricultural price.
• Ignoring your sector’s production-cost indicators during a negotiation, even though they are the reference the law requires to be considered.

Checklist

1. Identify the production-cost indicators published by your inter-branch organisation.
2. Check that your contracts build the price “forwards”.
3. Follow the corrective texts (EGalim 2, EGalim 3) rather than referring only to the 2018 law.
4. Distinguish, according to your activity, which strand of the law actually applies (collective catering, contracts, or both).