Supermarket Waste Hits New Highs

What you have to understand about supermarkets is that they want to keep doing what they've always done, and also sell enough organic lentils and organic milk and organic coconut milk, and museli, to put independent health food shops out of business:

Retailers generate 1.6 million tonnes of food waste each year. A study by Imperial College for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, found that supermarkets preferred to throw away food that was approaching its sell-by date rather than mark it down in price. "The cost of staff time is greater than the money made on the reduced items," the research found, citing a supermarket executive who said it cost the chain £11m a year in labour and lost margins to slash prices.