Tesco reveals 28,000 tonnes of its food wasted in 6 months

British supermarket chain Tesco revealed today that 28,500 tonnes of food was wasted in its stores and distribution centres in the first six months of this year alone.

Despite the launch of the Tesco and Society campaign in May, partly aimed at reducing food waste, the figures released for the first time show a quarter of grapes supplied to Tesco were never eaten, along with 40 per cent of apples and 20 per cent of bananas.

And 68 per cent of bagged salad never made it to the plate, with roughly a third of the total being thrown away in-store and the rest at home.

As a result of the findings, the company has announced an overhaul of its fruit and bread aisles to promote a faster turnover of produce and cut down on in-store waste. It will end multi-buys on large bags of salad and is developing mix-and-match promotions for smaller bags in a bid to help customers reduce the amount they are wasting.

It is also removing 'display until' dates from fresh fruit and vegetables, using smaller cases in stores and rearranging 600 in-store bakeries to reduce the amount of bread on display, with the aim of better stock control and less waste.

The company also announced that it will drop 'buy one get one free' deals and other promotions on its salads in a bid to stop customers buying produce they are unlikely to use before it goes off.

And customers will be offered tips about how to store fruit and use leftover bread.

Families waste an average of £700 a year on food that is thrown away in the home, according to the Waste and Resources Action programme (WRAP), which worked with Tesco to track 25 best-selling products of the supermarket chain, even though the amount of waste has reduced (See: UK Consumers now buy, waste less food than before the recession).

Figures published by the organisation suggested 15 million tonnes of food is thrown away each year in the UK (also see: Half the world's food output is wasted: study ).Tesco commercial director Matt Simister said, "We've all got a responsibility to tackle food waste and there is no quick-fix single solution. Little changes can make a big difference, like storing fruit and vegetables in the right way.

"We're playing our part too and making changes to our processes and in store.''

Max Lawson, head of policy at Oxfam, which has carried out studies into the use of food banks in Britain, said he welcomed the changes but that they did not go far enough to tackle wastage.

''Wasting this amount of food when a billion people go to bed hungry every night is a scandal and only shows that our profit-driven corporate food system is broken," he said.