SUPERMARKET Lidl has announced it will be trialling boxes of discount fruit and veg for just £1.50 in a bid to cut food waste.

The 'Too Good to Waste' boxes will contain around 5kg of items considered past their 'perfect best' but still perfectly good to eat.

A trial run of the scheme will take place in 122 Lidl stores nationwide and has been designed to tackle fruit and veg waste in store - one of the biggest contributors to supermarket food waste.

If rolled out nationwide, the scheme could save around 10,000 tonnes of surplus produce a year.

The firm says it hopes the boxes will 'encourage customers to purchase produce that they might have previously left on the shelf' and save some pennies.

Christian Härtnagel, CEO of Lidl UK, said: “Food waste is one of the most important topics that our industry is facing, and one that we are fully committed to tackling.

"This is why, in 2017, we set ourselves the ambitious target of reducing our food waste by 25 per cent across just three years.

“We’re proud that in just one year, our stores have managed to cut food waste by 13 per cent, however we recognise that there’s still a long way to go, to get where we need to be."

In January 2017, the firm also launched its Feed It Back programme, which sees it donate surplus food to local charities.

The rollout across all of its 710 stores is expected to complete soon.

The boxes will be on sale for the first two hours of trading, after which time those unsold will be donated via the Feed It Back scheme.