Iceland has found itself at the centre of a social media storm, because three people were to be prosecuted for stealing food from bins behind one of our stores in north London. This was apparently all our fault.

My initial reaction was one of total bemusement. Our store had not called the police, let alone asked for those concerned to be prosecuted. And no one could fail to have sympathy for anyone so desperate for food that they are reduced to rifling through waste bins.

Blissfully unaware of the grinding wheels of the legal process until we read about it in the Guardian, we acted as soon as we could to persuade the CPS to drop the case, which it did late on Wednesday afternoon.

Why were the police on the scene so quickly? A member of the public reported what was thought to be a burglary. It no doubt helped that our Kentish Town store is literally right next door to a police station, making it far from the softest option for any would-be bin scavenger.

Oddly enough we often find it hard to get a similarly swift and robust response to incidents of shoplifting, which many wrongly view as a victimless crime against a fat cat retailer. In fact it is anything but. Shoplifting adds to the cost of every item we all buy, and our staff are traumatised by threats and actual violence on an almost daily basis.

The incident in Kentish Town was not violent, and involved the theft of waste food from our bins that could not be sold and was clearly of minimal value to us. Of course people ask: why do we waste so much food? In reality, I'd be prepared to bet that we throw away less than any other national food retailer.

We hate waste. One of the big attractions of frozen food is that it keeps so long. You can use exactly as much as you need from a box of fish fingers or a packet of vegetables, and keep the rest. Buy fresh produce and you'll most likely end up chucking some of it away.

Yes, we do sell fresh as well as frozen because that's what our customers want and, yes, some of it inevitably goes to waste. But we work very hard with our suppliers to keep wastage to an absolute minimum by ensuring that our forecasting is as good as it can be, and delivering small quantities to most of our stores every day. We also work with an organisation called Company Shop, which distributes leftover food to those in food poverty, to clear surplus stock in a socially responsible way.

When food passes its use-by date, we can't legally sell it and have to dispose of it responsibly. We can't just give it away to those who are willing to take a chance. We'd be breaking the law and put ourselves at risk of prosecution if anyone became ill as a result.

Which is why we put our waste in locked bins (or, as in the case of Kentish Town, a secure storage area) and have it taken away by specialists. All our food waste is ultimately disposed of by environmentally friendly anaerobic digestion.

Yes, we know that times are tough for many people. They're our customers. That's why we struggle every day to offer them the best possible value. No, the fact that we have successfully lobbied for this prosecution to be stopped does not mean that we condone people rifling through bins. It's not safe.

We work really hard to engage with the 800-plus communities around the UK where we have stores, and to support charities both locally and nationally. We've given over £11m to good causes in the last eight years and we're recognised as one of the best big companies to work for in the UK.

But that doesn't mean we can't get even better and we'll be taking another look in the coming weeks to see if there is even more we can do to cut down waste. And, if we find that we can do even more to support those in our society who are in genuine need, you can be absolutely sure we will.