Tesco has launched new resealable salad bags as part of its efforts to help shoppers reduce food waste. Salads are one of the UK’s most wasted foods with households throwing away the equivalent of 178 million bags of salad each year.

The new bags have a sliding zip lock to prevent spillage, whilst the packaging is made from a thicker film than usual to help protect the leaves from getting damaged.

Adam Hill, Tesco’s Produce Buyer Manager, commented: “Over the last two years we’ve been working with our growers to develop new packaging which allows customers to return to their bags of salad over a number of days with very little hassle or fuss.

“We know many shoppers roll up their bagged salads after using them once and stick them at the back of their fridges where they are forgotten for days or even weeks. These new bags are made from stronger material to protect the leaves from getting scrunched up – so preventing them from going to waste.”

The move to launch the resealable salad bags was welcomed by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Its Business Programmes Director Steve Creed said: “We commend Tesco for introducing a new resealable packaging format for their pre-prepared salads which will help in the fight to reduce household food waste.

“At present, nearly 40% of lettuce and leafy salads bought by householders end up being thrown away in the home.”

The new packaging is part of Tesco’s ongoing ‘No Time For Food Waste’ campaign aimed at tackling food waste across the supply chain.