Tesco is to begin a trial giving expiring food to customers for free at the end of the day as it tries to cut food waste.
The supermarket will give away some already discounted “yellow sticker” items after 21:30 in some of its smaller Express stores in coming months.
Tesco already donates expiring food to charities and foodbanks. It says it is taking this step to try to meet its goal to halve food waste.
The company said the expiring food would be offered to charities and shop workers first, before customers could take it.
A spokesman said the trial would begin in a small number of its Express stores in the UK. The locations have not been specified, nor the starting date.
“This trial will allow customers to take any remaining yellow-stickered items for free at the end of the day, after they have first been offered to charities and colleagues,” they added.
Tesco is Britain’s largest supermarket chain, with a 27.8% market share. It has 3,700 UK stores and about 750 more abroad.
This should have been done a long time ago.
I try to buy as much items as I can already flagged as being in end of shelf life (pink and orange tags in the supermarkets I shop at) but several times I was denied taking home items that had “expired” the day before.
I’m right there and I’m willing to take it home at my responsability! Hand it over!