As fast food becomes more and more common in France, government officials are taking steps to protect the classic French cuisine, according to the Associated Press.
Lawmakers in France recently voted for a measure that would force all restaurants to publicly declare which dishes on the menu were homemade and which ones were not.
"I don't want chefs replaced by microwaves," Daniel Fasquelle, a lawmaker in the French Assembly told the AP.
Fasquelle and others want to protect what they've dubbed "true cuisine" by legally defining a restaurant as an eatery that makes more than half of their food from scratch.
According to the Huffington Post, French lawmakers believe that protecting their cuisine is a matter of national pride.
Fasquelle said the legislation, which was approved in the lower house and goes to the Senate in the fall, is weak but is a step in the right direction.
A study found that the French midday break is down to an average of 22 minutes, compared with nearly 90 minutes two decades ago, the AP reported. Another study found, fast food expenditures have surpassed traditional restaurants for the first time, making up 54 percent of receipts.
The Huffington Post reported one of the biggest drivers of the fast food trend are the very French boulangeries that were subject to regulation back in the '90s. Fasquelle said France has become masters in serving up delicious quick meals for the price of a Big Mac and fries.
"Forty percent of tourists come here for our cuisine," Fasquelle said.
If food quality continues to deteriorate, he added, at some point jobs will be at stake.
"France is not like other countries when it comes to cuisine," he said. "It's the country of good food, good wine."
According to Synhorcat, the national restaurant and hotel union, only about 55 percent of restaurant meals are made in-house from fresh ingredients.
"The French are modifying how they eat, not only fast food, but also at the high end," said Bernard Boutboul, who led the study. "And everything that is mid-range in France is less and less popular because it's of lower quality, lower flavor."
