CENTRAL DEVON MP Mel Stride visited Waitrose in Okehampton recently to learn about the branch’s new pilot scheme for reducing food waste.

It is one of six branches across the country chosen to assess what might work best across its 350 UK stores. Food waste is a major problem for supermarkets with critics saying that more should be done to deliver surplus stock to charities and foodbanks.

Waitrose is going further and is also looking to providing fruit to local schools, introduce new ways of displaying reduced items and offering reductions for John Lewis Partnership employees.

Mr Stride said: ‘We throw away seven million tonnes of food and drink from our homes each year. Much of this is down to us as consumers cooking larger portions than we need to, allowing products to expire and generally not planning our food shops well. However, supermarkets can definitely play a role in reducing this waste by providing better storage advice and greater reductions on products about to expire. They can also look at how their leftover food can be used by food banks and I’m pleased to see Waitrose looking seriously at these options.’

Branch manager Laura Grant said: ‘Retailers are determined to play our part in tackling food waste. In March Asda, Sainbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose joined with local authorities to sign the Courtauld 2025 agreement to reduce food and drink waste in the UK by 20% and I look forward to seeing what innovative ideas we can come up with here in Okehampton during the pilot scheme.’

For advice and tips on how to reduce food waste visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com