The British Retail Consortium has defended the supermarkets against criticism from food campaigners that they encourage food waste.

“Promotions are about offering value to customers and one of the key reasons for doing buy-one-get-one-frees is to encourage customers to buy fruit and vegetables at times when there are high levels of supply,” said the consortium’s spokesman Richard Dodd. “It is not about getting people to buy more than they can eat. I think that criticism is misguided. Supermarkets are already working with government to reduce waste and they don’t need to be told to afresh - it does not make economic or environmental sense to do anything else. Retailers can help their customers to manage waste by offering information on packaging about storage and sell by dates, but in the end, it is the customers who have a big part to play and it is good that this report has placed a big emphasis on what individuals do at home rather than blaming anyone else.”