Supermarkets urged to scrap buy-one-get-one-free as shoppers waste 222m tons of food a year
This is one of two food related stories this week – this one is about waste the other about foodbanks. Where both issues prevail it suggests to me what a very divided society we are.
A report published today by the House of Lords EU Committee concludes British retailers are shifting the blame on to customers by luring them in with Buy One Get One Free offers, a practice it says should cease. Farmers are also unfairly scapegoated by supermarkets cancelling orders at the last minute, the peers said.
The committee, which has been examining the impact of food waste in the UK and the EU, said Britain’s inability to reduce the amount of unwanted food it produces was “morally repugnant” and costs the economy at least £5bn a year. Industrialised countries waste 222 million tons of food a year, just 10 million tons short of the net food production of sub-Saharan Africa, peers said.
The report turned its fire on Britain’s retailers, saying they had the power to “influence the behaviour of producers, manufacturers and consumers but, thus far, have failed to take their responsibilities sufficiently seriously”.