Top chains bin £277m worth of sandwiches

MILLIONS of perfectly good sandwiches, salads and pastries are being thrown away by high street chains.

Thousands of outlets are dumping £277million of food a year rather than giving it to the needy.

Costa, McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks, Caffe Nero and Subway are among those accused of ‘basically doing nothing’ about food waste.

The allegations come from trade magazine The Grocer, which found that only three of the most popular lunchtime food-to-go chains use national redistribution schemes to prevent waste – Pret A Manger, KFC and Greggs.

It said while supermarkets have been the subject of criticism over food waste, fast food and sandwich outlets also have a huge responsibility.

Editor Adam Leyland said: ‘We seem to have selective outrage when it comes to food waste. Mention wheelie bins at the back of supermarkets and the nation’s blood boils.’

But we are ‘curiously silent’ about lunchtime chains, he added.

The Government advisory body WRAP estimates 76,000 tons of pastries, paninis and sandwiches are thrown out by 30,000 outlets every year.

The businesses named by The Grocer insisted they minimise waste through careful management of how much food is ordered and prepared.