Catering: how will the rules for “homemade” be set?

A mandatory display which must become the norm. Faced with the lack of success of the “homemade” label which has existed since 2014 but is optional and still too little used, the government intends to go even further and wishes to strengthen it. A position defended by Olivia Grégoire, the Minister Delegate in charge of Commerce and Crafts, who explained this weekend in La Tribune on Sunday that “homemade” would be guaranteed as such in the country's 175,000 restaurants, and this, by 2025. “We had to act”, expressed the minister in the weekly, explaining that “the mention “homemade””, today “optional on the cards”, remained “complicated” and “therefore, little used”. But, while “a few weeks of consultation are still planned before the opening of a parliamentary debate” on this subject, several questions are already being asked. What is a “homemade” dish? Who has the right to use this notice? What are the criteria to be met in order to use it?

Today, a certain number of rules have already been enacted. The first being that all types of catering - regardless of whether they are a traditional restaurant, a chain, fast food, take-out or collective catering - can display the words "homemade » if they meet the criteria. Among these criteria, it is notably necessary that the dishes be “prepared on site”, that is to say in the premises where customers are served. The only exception is for caterers and street vendors (food truck, market stand, etc.) who can display the “homemade” logo, even if their dishes are made outside the place where they sell them. Another criterion to respect: that of cooking “based on fresh or raw products”. And if these different foods are packaged, packaged or preserved, “they must be raw and without any other food apart from salt”, underlines the ministry. There is also nothing against freezing or deep-freezing, “as long as these preservation methods do not call into question the raw nature of the product”.

Questioned this Monday morning on France 2 on this subject, Thierry Marx, the president of the Union of Hotel Trades and Industries (Umih), rightly recalled that “competition” and “Uberization” of the hospitality sector catering today required “more transparency on restaurant menus”. The two-star chef, who has been pleading for several months for a strengthening of the label, believes that today we need to “speed things up a little” so that “those who do well are rewarded compared to those who, sometimes, cheat A little". “French gastronomy is a benchmark and, in a context where the Olympic Games are coming, we must reassure our tourist friends about the transparency of our appellations.” He mentions the figure of “54% of restaurants which do “homemade” and which suffer from being compared in terms of price to others who do not”.

Among the remaining 50%, some restaurateurs use “products sourced, or sometimes processed on site at 80%”, but “obviously, it is not at all “homemade” as one might expect in a restaurant », underlines Thierry Marx. However, he also defends "not 'homemade'" to the extent that a restaurateur can, according to him, "buy a puff pastry from the baker next door" or "a pâté from the butcher in the corner of very good quality” but “we can say it, because we have nothing to hide”. “And I believe that it is this transparency that we absolutely need, to show that French gastronomy does not cheat,” he concludes, before recalling that “homemade” is demanding and sometimes “complicated”, particularly in because of “sourcing”, “the price of raw materials” and “the number of employees needed to make “homemade” products”.

While waiting to learn more about strengthening the label, an initial work schedule has already been given by the minister. Until the Olympics, it is a question of strengthening communication around the existing label, so that the general public as well as restaurateurs know it better. After the Olympics, the aim is to publish a decree which will therefore reinforce the current “homemade” label to identify products not processed on site. But questions remain, notably from Umih, which wonders about the benefit of distinguishing dishes from “homemade” products. Likewise, the organization asks “not to take into account frozen products” which it considers to be “a method of preservation” or “not to penalize products or dishes transformed by someone else” . For example, pastries which “could be made by a chef outside the restaurant but with as much respect for “homemade””.

We will nevertheless have to wait a few months before knowing more since, according to Olivia Grégoire's office, the measure “will come into force by 2025” following a consultation “of three to four months”. The publication of a government decree will then be necessary to oblige the entire profession to mention non-homemade dishes. “Today there is an inequity between restaurateurs who play the game by purchasing and working with fresh products and those who obtain everything from wholesalers. Especially in times of inflation where fresh and raw are much more expensive than processed,” explains the minister’s entourage. For his part, Thierry Marx asked that this be “really put in place for the Olympics because it seems to us to be an extremely important highlight for restaurateurs”.