The company announced last week that it was switching to 100% French pork and beef in its own-brand ready meals. Noël Prioux, executive director of Carrefour France, signed an agreement with the French Minister for Agriculture, Stéphane Le Foll and the Minister for Consumption Benoît Hamon, stating that, from March, all own-brand fresh ready meals will be made from beef and pork sourced from animals born, reared and slaughtered in France.
The same will take effect on frozen ready meals within six months, giving the retailer the production and supply lead time needed to replace imported product with French meat.
Carrefour also committed to using labelling of meat to inform consumers of the origin of the beef and pork in ready meal products, and said it would set up an area on its website, giving information on the origin of meat sourced for different batches.
In a separate deal, Carrefour has signed new partnerships with chicken and beef suppliers. One of these will establish the first GMO-free and antibiotic-free chicken line in France. “These free-range chickens are mainly fed on cereals (up to 75%) and are available in the fresh produce department of Carrefour and Carrefour Market stores,” it said.
The second is a partnership with Puigrenier, a family company located in Allier, Montluçon, in the centre of France, which will expand the company’s Charolais beef line. Carrefour said it hoped the partnership would “eventually expand the Carrefour Quality Lines network to include 600 additional cattle farmers”.