Tesco is set to give away food for free in its pursuit to end food waste and hit its net zero targets.
The supermarket is trialing a “yellow sticker” system with marked prices of £0 for food that is about to go out of date, in a change from its usual reductions which see food discounts typically limited to 90 per cent.
The company is testing this change in a small number of its Express stores for shoppers who visit past 9.30pm.
Tesco aims to give unsold food to charities, but some of it has been used to generate gas that can be burned for energy in a process known as anaerobic digestion, counted as waste.
As part of this new trial Tesco will still give food to charities, while staff with get priority for yellow sticker items that had been reduced earlier in the day.
Any leftover food which is still in stores in the run-up to closing time, which is marked “Reduced to Clear”, will be available for customers to take home for free as part of the trial.
Tesco told staff in an internal memo, seen by The Telegraph, that the trial would allow it to “continue with our drive to reduce food waste within our own operations”.
The brand has set itself ambitious targets to hit Net Zero, which were validated by Science Based Targets Initiative in 2023. One of these targets include to halve food waste in its operations by 2025.
Last February the supermarket had to revise its figures about the progress they had made cutting down on food waste, as it emerged that it had been working with a food waste processor using anaerobic digestion.
This meant it had cut food waste by just 18 per cent between early 2017 and 2023, instead of the 45 per cent it had believed.
A Tesco spokesperson said of its latest trial:“We are constantly looking for innovative new ways to reduce food waste. In all our stores we offer unsold surplus food to charities and community groups, donating millions of meals each month.
“This trial, in a small number of our Express stores, will allow customers to take any remaining yellow stickered items for free at the end of the day, after they have first been offered to charities and colleagues.”
