Lidl starts super cheap pricing to fight food waste

Supermarket chain Lidl is taking another step in reducing its food waste. From now on, customers can find products on their use-by date for super cheap at the 436 Lidl stores. Products like cheese, bread, and milk are priced at 25 cents, and meat, fish, and vegan products at 50 cents. Fruit and vegetables can be bought by 2 kilogram box for 2.99 euros through the Too Good To Go app, AD reports.

"It is our next step in reducing food waste, Quirine de Weerd of Lidl said to the newspaper. Over the past year, Lidl experimented with this approach at 24 stores, and with great success. The involved stores reduced their food waste by a third on average. "Which is why we are now introducing it in all stores."

"Unlike other supermarkets, you could never buy our groceries until the last day of the use-by date, we always kept the day before. Customers can now buy good products at a small price and at the same time ensure that we waste less food. As a result, we are well n track to meet the overall goal of 50 percent less food waste well before 2030," De Weerd said.

She is not worried that customers will only buy the cheap products and leave the other products on the shelves to eventually also end up in the bargain bin. "The test showed that this is not so bad. We rather think that we are reaching other target groups."

The supermarket chain stressed that customers who buy products from the bargain section must consume or freeze them that day. 

Lidl is also taking steps in the field of packaging material. "Our goal is to use only recyclable plastic in our range by 2025. We are working hard on that," De Weerd said.