London: British supermarkets should scrap offers such as “buy one get one free” to help end the “morally repugnant” waste of millions of tonn-es of food, a House of Lords committee has said.
The Lords EU committee also said big retailers should stop cancelling orders of food from farmers after the produce had been grown, a practice that leads to edible food being ploughed back into the fields.
The committee said more unused food should be donated to food banks rather than sent for composting or landfill. The committee chairwoman, Lady Scott of Needham Market, said the peers were shocked at the scale of food waste. About 15 million tonnes of food are dumped each year in the UK and at least 90 million tonnes across the EU.
“There is also much that can be done domestically, and in particular by the big retailers, to reduce food waste,” Ms Scott was quoted as saying by the Press Association.
“We are urging the supermarkets to look again at offers such as ‘buy one get one free’, which can encourage excess consumption which leads to food waste,” the chairwoman said.
