The UK's biggest grocery retailers have pledged to emulate Tesco and disclose the volume of food discarded by their stores in an effort to cut down on waste.
Retailers have been under pressure to act after the UK's leading supermarket admitted it generated 28,500 tonnes of food waste - including two-thirds of bagged salad and 40 per cent of apples - at its stores and distribution centres in the first six months of last year.
But at today's 'A Better Retailing Climate' launch event at the House of Commons, a collective pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 - putting the industry well on course to meet the 80 per cent overall target set by the UK Climate Change Bill - has been announced.
Companies who representhalf of UK retail by turnover also committed to publish their data on food waste created at the retail stage, along with annual progress reports.
The signatories, which include all of the major grocery retailers, already provide data on waste in the supply chain to the resource efficiency body WRAP, and are working closely with customers to help reduce food waste in the home.
British Retail Consortium (BRC) director general Helen Dickinson, said: 'Retailers in the UK have made significant progress in reducing their impact on the environment. I'm delighted that the signatories are pushing themselves to achieve against even more ambitious commitments, having gone above and beyond the last set of targets.
'The strength of commitment is plain to see when you look at how much progress has been made in the last decade: for example, only 6 per cent of waste was sent to landfill in 2013, down from 47 per cent in 2005. But retailers will continue to keep this momentum going: they recognise that it makes business sense and delivers real environmental benefits as well as value for their customers.'
The BRC's A Better Retailing Climate initiative was set up in 2008.
