UK supermarkets urged to stop edible food waste amid heatwave

Supermarkets in the United Kingdom discard around 200,000 tonnes of food each year – enough for over 350 million meals and costing the sector about £1 billion annually, according to London Business School. A petition on the UK Parliament website calls for a law that would ban retailers such as Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Waitrose and Lidl from throwing away any edible food, requiring surplus to be donated instead.

The campaign gains urgency as a severe heatwave has left British farmers facing “the worst harvest in years”. Gavin Lane, president of the Country Land and Business Association, warned that drought‑stricken wheat is at half its usual height and some crops are unharvestable. He urged the government to invest in resilient farming systems and a “sustainable farming incentive” to support farms if weather wipes out yields.