Lidl is launching 5kg boxes of damaged fruit and veg for just £1.50 The supermarket is working to cut food waste and provide an affordable fruit and veg box for shoppers.

Lidl has launched a ‘damaged’ fruit and veg box scheme in a bid to cut food waste.

The boxes, which cost just £1.50, contain 5kg of food that would otherwise be thrown away. Lidl said the initiative could help save 10,000 tonnes of surplus produce a year.

Called ‘Too Good to Waste’, Lidl said the items are “no longer considered at their perfect best”, but are still perfectly good to eat.

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It is fair to say that Britain has become far too accustom to pristine-looking food products, and Lidl said to i this has led to a bit of a “false market”.

Savings

For example, if one orange in a pack of six looks a little bruised, it may be that supermarkets deem the pack useless, and all the fruit goes in the bin.

To begin with, Lidl is trialling the boxes across 122 stores. If successful, they could be rolled out nationwide, to all 710 sites. Lidl last year committed to cut food waste by 25 per cent per store by 2020.

Lidl UK CEO Christian Härtnagel said: “Food waste is one of the most important topics that our industry is facing, and one that we are fully committed to tackling.

“We’re proud that in just one year, our stores have managed to cut food waste (by 13 per cent), however we recognise that there’s still a long way to go to get where we need to be.

£1.50 per box

“We know from our data that fresh produce is one of the biggest contributors to food waste in stores, so we’re excited by the difference our ‘Too Good to Waste’ initiative will make. Not only will it help customers consider items that they might have previously dismissed, it will also provide an opportunity for them to make further savings.”

The brand has now set a new target and wants to reduce food waste by 50 per cent by 2030 (a busy year, what with the Central line finally acquiring air conditioning, and Britain hopefully hosting the World Cup).

Lidl’s damaged goods boxes might be compared to similar schemes at other supermarkets.

Lidl said to i that it doesn’t use the term ‘wonky veg’. The company doesn’t believe products should necessarily be priced down for being a slightly different shape or size.

The supermarket said it instead works very closely with suppliers to ensure a degree of flexibility with specifications at different times of the year, so a wider range of goods is included within standard lines. It also takes seasonality into account.

If you’re thinking of ordering a box but aren’t sure how to make use of all the ingredients, here are some recipe ideas from a top chef.