Supermarkets wasting 200,000 tonnes of food that could go to needy, say charities

Volunteers from The Bread and Butter Thing in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of surplus food that could be going to hungry families is going to waste as supermarkets restrict who their suppliers can give it to, according to food distribution charities.

Several independent charities, which are grouped together under the Xcess network, say they struggle to source unwanted edible food from manufacturers and processors because of supermarkets’ rules about the handling of their own-label products.