Supermarkets aim to partner charities to cut food waste

It is estimated that some 7,000 tonnes of food waste are produced each year in the island, with about two-thirds of this coming from households and the remainder from commercial sources.

If the States approves the revised waste strategy proposals, commercial food waste could be handled in the same way as domestic – separated, collected and taken to a transfer station at Longue Hougue.

From there it will be shipped to a specialist plant in the UK and used to recover usable energy and produce a compost-like material.

Creasey's director Ian McLaughlin said its Marks & Spencer franchise did not have a great deal of food waste.

He said that while a lot of it was sold to customers on special offer, much was also sold at a reduced rate to staff and some is donated to the Guernsey Cheshire Home and Les Bourgs Hospice.

'We have reduced the amount collected significantly as a total cost to us,' said Mr McLaughlin.

Waitrose also reduces its products to sell as much as possible rather than dumping it, said Admiral Park branch manager Ian Burdekin.

Alliance does its best to minimise food waste – it said a lot of food that could go to waste is sold off at a reduced price.

'We try to throw away as little as possible,' said spokesman and team member Andrew Bagot.

'The intention clearly is to sell everything we can,' said Channel Islands Co-op chief operating officer Mark Cox.

'We have a strict policy of reducing the price of any food that looks like it is going out of date. Eighty per cent of all food that could go to waste, we sell.'