A House of Lords committee has called for European supermarkets to end deals such as "buy one, get one free" (BOGOF) in order to cut down on food wastage.
The Lords EU committee said the removal of such offers would help to end the "morally repugnant" waste of millions of tonnes of food.
More unsold food should also donated to food banks, said the committee, not sent to landfill.
The EU's attempts to reduce food waste were "fragmented and untargeted", said the committee in its report.
They called on the new European Commission, which will be appointed next winter, to publish a five-year plan for reducing food waste across the EU, and to publish the strategy within six months of taking office.
The peers were "shocked" at the scale of food waste, said committee chairwoman Baroness Scott of Needham Market.
Lady Scott said, “We are urging the supermarkets to look again at offers such as 'buy one get one free', which can encourage excess consumption which leads to food waste.”
“We also think supermarkets must work much more closely with their suppliers so as not to cancel pre-ordered food which has been grown, is perfectly edible and is then ploughed straight back into the field."
She believes the UK Government also have a role to play in encouraging co-operation throughout the supply chain.
"We cannot allow the complexity of the issues around defining and monitoring food waste to delay action any further.”
It is estimated that more than 90 million tonnes of food is wasted in the EU each year.
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine
