Supermarkets food waste is legendary in a few countries, and there's a new wave in Europe that demands the largest chains in the continent to avoid burning or throwing food out when it's not bought for one reason or another - and, following a first effort by France, the next country to step up might be the United Kingdom.

Food World News reported on the recent move from the French government to keep supermarkets from food waste from now on, as the country's legislative body, the National Assembly, banned the largest chains (such as Carrefour) from getting rid of food by destroying it, and rather they're now forced by law to donate it to charity or animal food-making companies.

According to The Independent, the man responsible for the French supermarkets food waste legislation, Arash Derambarsh (a representative of the Paris commune of Coubervoie), aims for his efforts to go global after the official creation of the recent environmentalist law.

It was Derambarsh who created an online petition on Change.org for the French people to sign, and it gathered so much support that it ultimately became into the new supermarkets food waste law.

Now, he's reaching out to the rest of the European Union countries to follow France's example, as, according to The Guardian, the annual figure of restaurants and supermarkets food waste in the region is 89mtons a year.

The Mirror reports that Lizzie Swarf, Derambarsh's equivalent in the UK, has started a similar petition to the one the Frenchman made, only directed at David Cameron's government - and it's already gotten the support of more than 100,000 people.

In any case, the effort to halt supermarkets food waste is only the latest in a new trend to keep food from being wasted around the world; most notably, a British man named Adam Smith has proposed an idea that has gone viral with the Real Junk Food Project, which basically consists of cafés that take good food about to be thrown out to make it into casseroles, soups and the like.