Alex Trelinski
LIDL supermarkets in Spain are introducing an ‘anti-waste’ bag containing misshaped fruit and vegetables that are perfectly fine to eat.
Priced at €3, the bag also features items with damaged packaging that have not affected product quality.
The move comes after Spain last summer passed a food waste bill forcing supermarkets and groceries to sell cut-price fruit and vegetables that have an imperfect or unattractive shape.
Around 1.3 million tonnes of food is thrown away in the country each year, dominated by fresh produce.
The law also provides for heavy fines for non-compliant supermarkets.
The ‘anti-waste’ bag concept has been tested in over 30 Lidl stores in the Canary Islands, preventing the wastage of more than 20,000 kilograms of fruit and vegetables.
The chain is now rolling out the initiative across its 650-plus stores in Spain.
Lidl Spain’s Michaela Reischl said:”Reducing food waste is one of our priorities in terms of sustainability and we are committed to careful planning and management to minimise the stock of surplus products.
“After the success of the pilot project in the Canary Islands, I am convinced that our clients in the rest of the country will also welcome this initiative very positively.”
Lidl has also been conducting trials of other measures to reduce food waste in the Canaries, which have also now been rolled out across the network.
It is also progressively implementing a 50% discount on ‘day-old’ breads as well as a 30% discount on cookies, pasta, canned goods and frozen products, which until now were not discounted when they were close to their ‘best-before’ date.
The retailer has introduced an additional 20% discount on the last day of expiration of fresh items such as meat, fish, yoghurts, cheeses or salads, on top of an existing 30% discount implemented when the products were close to their expiration date or ‘best-before’ date.
As in the case of fruit and vegetables, all of these discounts are government mandated under the new food waste law.
READ MORE:
- Supermarkets in Spain will have to sell cut-price ‘ugly’ fruit and veg to reduce food waste
- Annual food wastage in Spain is equivalent to 28 kilos per person
- Spain aims to cut food waste with ‘doggy bags’ on offer for all diners
