Tesco shoppers will soon be buying more fruit and vegetables loose as the supermarket speeds up plans to scrap plastic packaging .
The supermarket chain wants to remove all plastic wrappers from 5billion items sold by 2025.
It is now telling its suppliers to speed up scrapping plastic and either supply vegetables loose or in recyclable or compostable packets.
Tesco is also trying to sell more items concentrated, which uses less packaging.
The supermarket giant is also pressing ahead with stocking more products that can be refilled by consumers who bring their own containers into stores.
Tesco's decision is part of a wider campaign by supermarkets to sell most fresh fruit and vegetables loose rather than packed in plastic, to help the environment.
All major supermarkets have signed up to guidelines by sustainability organisation Wrap to sell loose produce by 2025.
Apples, bananas, broccoli and cucumber will be among the first to be sold without plastic wrapping.
Other items that will soon be sold with no packaging include aubergines, avocados, carrots, onions and peppers.
Wrap thinks 80% of fruit and vegetables can be sold with no wrapping.
It estimates this will save more than 21,500 tonnes of plastic being thrown in the bin every year.
Tesco group quality director Sarah Bradbury said: "We’ve already made progress to minimise the environmental impact of our packaging, but we know there is more we can do with suppliers on the issue of plastic waste."
“We’re bringing suppliers together to work solutions because we are determined to go further and accelerate our progress, with a focus on the areas of greatest impact.”
Many retailers are cutting down on the amount of plastic they use because so much of it takes hundreds of years break down and ends up being washed into the sea.
Tesco was the first supermarket to stop selling plastic bags, and last month also vowed not to sell plastic baby wipes in pledge to help the environment.
The supermarket chain is the UK’s largest supplier of the products and sells of 75 million packs of wet wipes a year.
But other supermarkets are cutting back on plastic and food waste in other ways too.
Last year London department store Harrods announced it would axe its classic green and gold plastic bags and bring in paper versions.
The Co-op supermarket has scrapped use-by dates on yoghurt - and is urging Brits to use their common sense instead.
Around six million Brits eat yoghurt every day, the BBC reports - around 9% of us.
But research from Wrap shows half of these are thrown away in packs that were never opened, because they have gone past the 'use-by' date.
Morrisons has scrapped the dates on its own-brand milk , while many retailers have stopped putting the dates on vegetables.
Meanwhile restaurants and takeaways will be banned from distributing plastic condiment sachets such as ketchup, mayonnaise and vinegar, under government plans unveiled in January.
