// Tesco witnesses shortage of HGV drivers
// The shortage is leading to almost 50 tonnes of food waste each week
// The shortage was leading to supermarket shelves and restaurant plates going empty
Tesco has said the shortage of HGV drivers is leading to an additional 48 tonnes of food waste each week.
The Big 4 grocer told government ministers that suppliers are wasting food because of the situation.
Tesco said 48 tonnes of food across its supply chain in the last week alone had been binned, which is a big change from typical levels and the shortage of drivers remains unresolved.
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Foodbank charity FareShare said that as much as a third of the food that would otherwise reach its warehouses was not getting through, equating to 800,000 meals a week for those in need.
“It is frustrating that a lack of available HGV drivers is resulting in more perfectly good food going to waste when it could be redistributed to those who need it most,” FareShare chief executive Lindsay Boswell said.
Earlier this month, major distributor Nationwide Produce said the “acute shortage” of HGV (heavy goods vehicle) drivers is behind “perfectly good, graded and packed fresh produce being dumped or left rotting in cold stores, waiting for wheels to go under it”.
The shortage was leading to supermarket shelves and restaurant plates going empty, describing it as a “crisis of national importance”.
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