Link between buy-one-get-one-free and food waste 'very small', retailers say

Andrew Opie, the food director at the British Retail Consortium, said that retailers are doing “everything they can to keep food prices down” and “know better than anyone” the pressures on low-income families.

The defence of supermarkets from Mr Opie comes after the former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott called on supermarkets to rethink Bogof promotions because they lead to an increase in household food waste.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, he said that supermarkets should allow customers to donate the free product to food banks.

However, Mr Opie said: “The evidence shows that the link between promotions and food waste is actually very small. The main method of promotions is cutting the price rather than Bogof offers, which are rare for fresh products but one of a range of choices offering value to customers.

“A range of measures including improved storage advice and providing customers with advice on portion sizes and using leftovers have all been successful in helping reduce domestic food waste by 670,000 tonnes across the UK between 2005 and 2009.

“While food waste and food poverty are separate issues, where money is simply not available retailers are working with charities, manufacturers and redistribution organisations across the UK to ensure that what usable excess stock there is goes to people who need it.”

Asda, Britain’s second biggest food retailer behind Tesco, scrapped Bogof promotions in 2009 in favour of cutting the prices of core products such as bread, milk and eggs.

On Monday, it launched an initiative to directly send surplus chilled food to FareShare, the food redistribution charity, rather than returning them to the manufacturer.

This will provide enough food for an extra 3.6m meals and represent a 41pc increase in the amount of chilled food sent to FareShare.

J Sainsbury said it has “moved away” from Bogof towards multi-buy offers such as “3 for 2” for large families and “mix & match” for smaller households.

“We have moved away from buy one get one free and instead we offer customers a mixture of promotions to suit their needs”, a spokesperson said.

Tesco said that it allowed customers to donate products from Bogof promotions during national food collections. This included a weekend last December and another scheduled for July.

A spokesperson for the retailer said: “Bogof deals only account for a small proportion of our promotions, as we know our customers like to use other offers including half-price promotions and minimum spend vouchers when they’re trying to save money.

"More broadly, we’ve been working with organisations like WRAP to understand the causes of food waste and how we can help customers to waste less.

"Some of the areas we’ll be looking at include introducing new promotions, giving more tips on using leftover food and offering clearer date coding.”

Þ Retail sales in May rose by 1.8pc on a like-for-like basis and represent a “good result”, according to the BRC and KPMG. This compares to a Easter-induced 2.2pc fall in April.