Discount retailer Lidl has launched a new food waste initiative which will see boxes of wonky fruit and veg sold at a massively reduced price.

Following in the footsteps of Morrisons and Asda, the supermarket will now sell 5kg boxes of imperfect fresh produce for £1.50.

In a scheme that is being piloted across 122 of the 710 Lidl stores nationwide, the boxes of damaged fruit and veg will be available from 8am - 10am each morning this week.

Any unsold products will be donated straight to local charities.

If the trial is successful the retailer will consider a national roll out across all stores, which could save an estimated 10,000 tonnes of waste per year.

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% across just three years.

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

"We’re fortunate that our business model gives us the flexibility and agility to be creative and trial new approaches that can have a real, positive impact.

“Proportionately, we sell the most fruit and veg in the sector, but we know from our data that fresh produce is one of the biggest contributors to food waste in stores, so we’re excited by the difference our Too Good to Waste initiative will make.

"Not only will it help customers consider items that they might have previously dismissed, it will also provide an opportunity for them to make further savings.”

The store has already pledged to cut food waste per store by 25% by 2020, and their recently released figures show that average food waste per store has already fallen by 13.3%.

Both Asda and Morrisons have launched similar products in the past, but the cost of their versions are more than double the price of Lidl’s wonky veg box, at £3.50 and £3 respectively.

Lidl’s Too Good to Waste initiative is one of the many measures the discounter has introduced to tackle the issue of food waste.

Since opening its first British stores in 1994, the discounter has chosen not to include Best Before dates on 90% of its fruit and veg.

The news comes after Morrisons announced an extension to its imperfect produce range, which will now include flowers.

The unusually hot summer has resulted in poor growth and many flowers unable to develop properly.

Wonky bouquets with shorter or crooked stems or smaller/misshapen flower heads will now be sold for £3, compared to the usual £5.