Tesco staff are set to start receiving free food as the grocer pushed forward with an initiative to reduce food waste.
The scheme, dubbed Colleague Shops, will allow staff to take surplus food if it is unable to find a charity or community group to take it.
It will be rolled out across all of its UK stores and marks an acceleration in Tesco’s plan to become the first UK grocer to throw away no food which is fit for human consumption.
Chief executive Dave Lewis said he expected to have hit this target by the end of Tesco’s financial year in March.
Dedicated fridges will be installed in staff rooms to store the food, which staff will initially be charged 1p for.
Later in the year it will be free.
“We want to do everything we can to make sure perfectly good food doesn’t go to waste,” head of food waste reduction Mark Little said.
“Our Colleague Shops are a win-win, providing an additional step to support our efforts to tackle food waste in our own operations, and offer colleagues an extra little help at the end of their shift.”
This follows an announcement earlier this month in which Tesco pledged its support for a bottle deposit return scheme in efforts to reduce plastic waste.
Its support was met with praise from environmental groups, following similar declarations of support from Iceland and the Co-op.
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