A supermarket chain is the first in Kent to sell food past its best before date at slashed prices.

Morrisons — which has 10 stores across Kent including Strood, Sittingbourne and Canterbury — has partnered with app company Too Good to Go to sell boxes of food which has not been sold in stores prior to its best before date.

The food giant is making the app available to Kent shoppers from Tuesday, November 26, and will allow customers to purchase individual boxes filled with £10 of produce for just £3.09.

They will be stocked with fruit and vegetables as well as bakery and deli products, but shoppers will not know what is in the boxes until they collect them.

It is hoped the initiative will drastically reduce food waste from large supermarket stores, with Morrisons hoping to reduce its own waste output to 50% less in the next decade.

Sophie Trueman, head of business development at Too Good To Go, also hopes the app can help lessen the reliance on food banks for some Kent families.

She said: "We've had some really amazing feedback from some of the Morrison's stores on the benefit they're seeing on their local community, especially when it's areas that are on the poverty line.

"There's a real sense of helping the community. Obviously the app is available to anyone and everyone, if we can help all sorts of people that's a great benefit."

This comes after the Trussell Trust revealed more families in Kent than ever are having to rely on the use of food banks to survive.

According to their figures more than 12,000 food parcels were given out in the county between April 1 and September 30.

This number is a 25% increase on the same period in 2018, which saw 9,000 parcels supplied to adults and children.

A food bank in Deal had to resort to running evening opening hours for working families who could not attend during normal opening hours.

Sheila Ward, who works at Deal's Trussell Trust food bank, said it was shocking to discover parents with full-time jobs were having to visit food banks to feed their children.

She said: “When we started seven years ago, it really wasn't envisaged that people in work would also be claiming food. And that's rather sad, horrid to see.”

The app company also wants to ensure people understand the safety of eating food past its best before date, which is different to food past it's use by date.

Miss Trueman said: "(The produce) will be at its highest quality before that date, however after that date they will be still perfectly edible, and that's what we're also raising awareness about.

"Think about the amount of times you've had a bag of potatoes in your fridge and actually they are perfectly fine to use a week if not longer afterwards.

"Anything with a use by should not be going into these boxes because it is illegal to resell use by items if they are passed that date."

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