The companies, which together make 80% of what the French eat, could face financial sanctions if they don't follow through, Le Maire said. France's finance minister has previously threatened to claw back what he described as "undue" profits from food companies with special taxes if they did not pass on their own lower costs to consumers already struggling with high energy bills. Higher costs have hit appetites among the food-loving French, whose spending on food, adjusting for inflation, has fallen to its lowest level since March 2009, according to data from the INSEE statistics agency