“HOME-MADE” Seal of Approval: Does the legislators cooking lack finesse?

Since 15th July a new seal of approval has been appearing on restaurant menus:

This logo, representing a saucepan with a roof for a lid aims to indicate to consumers that the dish he is about to order and sample has been cooked entirely on-site from crude or traditional kitchen products.

The willingness to provide this information to the consumer is part on the one hand of a current traceability process and on the other of the promotion of the cooking profession. It joins other recent labels such as “Restorers of France” or “Master Restorer”.

Nevertheless, this new label directly concerns the dish and, more precisely its place of preparation and ingredients. 

Problems arise in the subtleties of legislator’s ingredients on how to apply this new recipe. 

Below cited are some examples of the more or less savoury ingredients of the 11July 2014 Decree No. 2014-797:

• “Crude products” are defined as “a food product that has not undergone any significant changes, including heating, pickling, blending or a combination of these processes”.

Yet products are still considered “crude” even if they are delivered peeled – excepting potatoes. However, they can be delivered hashed, cut, smoked, salted or frozen, etc. to qualify as a crude product Cold cuts may be included in the composition of “home-made” dishes but pâtés are expressly excluded. 

It’s mentioned that dry biscuits or uncooked puff pastry can also be included in the composition of dishes benefiting from this label, but as fresh biscuits or short-crust are not listed in the authorized products it must be concluded that they are excluded.

• In addition, a dish composed of a non-crude product within the meaning of the decree and not included in the exceptions may however be described as “home-made” if the trademark of the product in question, or the name of the professional who has manufactured is expressly indicated.
• It is also interesting to note that it is compulsory for the phrase “‘Home-made’ dishes are made onsite using crude ingredients” to be mentioned by all restaurateurs and caterers, even if the establishment offers no dishes that can benefit from the “home-made” label.  

Therefore, it will be up to the client to deduct that the chosen establishment does not offer any home-made products by noting the absence of the label or the mention “home-made”.

We can rest assured however as there is a 1 January 2015 deadline for complying with this new legislation. This will allow time for the Competition, Consumption and Fraud Prevention Inspectors to digest this decree and greedily implement the provisions of the Consumer Code for unfair trade practices.