Lidl has launched ‘Too Good to Waste’ fruit and veg boxes at its Queensferry store

Supermarket chain Lidl has launched Too Good to Waste produce boxes at it’s Queensferry store.

The produce boxes, which contain fruit and veg considered to be slightly past their perfect best, have been rolled out to all stores following a trial across 122 locations which showed it eliminated hundreds of tonnes of food waste.

Differing from ‘wonky veg’ which are sold by most supermarkets Too Good to Waste boxes contain slightly damaged, discoloured or deteriorated fruit and vegetables.

The boxes, priced at just £1.50 for approximately 5kg, contain fruit and vegetables from the store shelves.

They are put together daily by the discounter’s in-store teams, and are available to customers from opening until midday, at which point, any leftover boxes are given to local good cause throughLidl’s surplus food redistribution programme, Feed it Back.

Through the trial, which was launched in August and gradually extended to 122 stores, Lidl says it has sold more than 50,000 Too Good To Waste boxes and prevented 250 tonnes of food going to waste.

Christian Härtnagel, CEO Lidl GB, said: “The positive feedback that we have received off the back of our trial has been incredible; from our colleagues who are showing so much passion for them, to our customers who were getting in touch from the get go asking where they could get one.

We’re therefore really excited to be rolling the boxes out to all of our stores nationwide, and we’re really pleased to see that it’s also starting to be adopted by other supermarkets.

“The really brilliant thing about this initiative is that not only is it helping to tackle the highly important challenge of food waste, it’s also helping our customers make even more savings.

Additionally, it’s a great example of how we, as a discounter, can utilise our lean and efficient business model to fulfil our mission to make good, healthy food more affordable and accessible, whilst acting sustainably.”