The Bio Agency, a public body responsible for promoting and developing organic farming, is launching a program on Monday to encourage chefs to offer more organic products on the menu, without increasing their bill too much.
“Currently in Europe, the 170,000 restaurants only offer 1% organic on their menu. From there, we can only progress“, explained Laure Verdeau, director of Agence Bio, who presented this program during the Sirha Omnivore culinary festival in Paris.
Mobilization of organic “chef ambassadors”
The three-year program, co-financed by the European Union for a budget of 1.9 million euros, is based on a network of “chef ambassadors” and a communication campaign aimed at chefs and professionals in the restoration.
The choice of the first 13 “ambassador chefs” is intended to be eclectic: a Foodtruck chef, a gourmet restaurant chef, a home delivery specialist, a school catering chef…, spread across the entire territory and who use a lot of organic food in their menus.
“It is a leader evangelism program“, continues Laure Verdeau. The “ambassadors” will travel to trade shows and professional events to explain their approach and the techniques they use to remain profitable.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
Objective: that all restaurants put a little organic on the menu
Ultimately, the program will also target large suppliers, such as Metro, as well as training courses and cooking schools.
A platform containing advice, best practices and information, Cuisinonsplusbio.fr, should also be launched by the end of the year.
“The goal is not to have a few 100% organic restaurants, it is to have 100% of restaurants that have at least a little organic on the menu.“, specifies Laure Verdeau.
For the Bio Agency, this initiative should make it possible to find new outlets for the organic sector, which is currently being ignored in supermarkets due to inflation.
“Until now there was no problem with organic growth, it was even the opposite, there were not enough products for demand, but today we are telling farmers who want to install in organic that it is not possible because there are no outlets“, regrets the director of the Bio Agency.
Slide: 12 foods that are better to eat organic
