The supermarket said the expiring food will be offered to charities and shop workers before customers could take it.

In a break from the usual shopping traditions Tesco is about to start giving away some of its food for free to its customers. The supermarket giant is launching a new scheme which will see certain shoppers bag a few special bargains.

While all major supermarket chains partner with food banks and community groups to redistribute surplus food and offer discounts on expiring items, Tesco's initiative appears to be the first direct-to-customer scheme of its kind in the UK.

All yellow sticker food will become free after 9.30pm, with the normal weekday closing time for a Tesco Express 11pm. It is estimated that almost 10 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK every year, this is roughly equivalent to a quarter of all the food produced in the country annually.

Tesco is to begin a trial giving expiring food to customers for free at the end of the day as it tries to cut food waste. The supermarket will give away some already discounted "yellow sticker" items after 21:30 in some of its smaller Express stores in coming months.

Tesco will start giving away free food to shoppers at certain stores in a bid to achieve its net zero targets. The supermarket is to introduce £0 yellow sticker prices on food that is about to go out of date,