ACCORDING to a recent survey commissioned by the BBC, people struggling with the soaring cost of living are cutting back on food and car journeys to save money.

It’s frightening that energy bills are now getting so high that some people have to decide between turning the heating on or eating a meal.

It used to be that you could rely on local supermarkets to reduce their food that was going out of date, sometimes up to three times a day. But are the days of getting food for pennies gone?

One of our service users felt that supermarkets had changed their food reduction policies and were now “putting profits before customer welfare”.

They compared greedy oil companies increasing the cost of fuel while making billions in profit, with how some supermarkets no longer reduce food adequately, forcing customers to buy items at a higher cost and thereby helping supermarkets increase their profit margins at a time of economic crisis.

I decided to do a little investigating to see if this was true. Here’s what I found.

Tam Clark, a duty manager with Morrisons in Stevenston, says his store now only does one price reduction per day. It’s at around 5pm and prices are reduced by up to 60–70 percent. But rather than waste anything that doesn’t sell, any remaining food gets registered in Morrisons’ online ‘Too Good To Go’ app. Customers can then click what they want and pick up their bag up at the store’s café.

Tam said their ‘Too Good To Go’ bags vary in price from £1.50 for between £9 and £12 of fresh food, to £2 for more than £8 of other food reaching its use-by date.

This was disputed by one of our service users, who said; “Firstly, it’s £3 for £10 worth of food. You cannot choose the food on the ‘Too Good To Go’ app.

“You have to take what you get in the bag and usually this means you’re left with food you don’t like or want, especially if you have kids.

“Also, the meat and fish does not get reduced by 60–70 percent at all. They used to reduce fresh food going out of date to 25 per cent or less, but now that people are desperate to buy food, they refuse to reduce these items.

“As far as I can see, there are two outcomes to this new policy; firstly, many people are desperate, and will have to buy food at this price as they need it. Secondly, as many people in our area still cannot afford this food even at 70 percent reduction, the food is left at the end of the night and thrown out rather than being reduced further.

“This is just pure greed on the store’s behalf. It’s immoral to sell food going out of date at a higher price than they did four months ago.”

Asda in Ardrossan were not keen to comment on their new food reduction policy, only confirming that food reaching its use-by date used to be reduced three times per day, but is now only reduced twice per day, with any remaining food being donated to various food banks.

One of our service users, who did not want to be named as, felt ashamed as, in her words, “she depended on getting food from a food bank” for her family to survive, disputed this.

She said: “Asda can’t be donating left-over fresh food to the food bank as food banks won’t accept fresh food past their expiry date.

“And anyway, the Asda store doesn’t close until 10pm, are they saying the leftover food goes to a foodbank at midnight?”

Another service user complained; “I was in Asda at 7.30pm and there was a pack of sushi which had been reduced from £3.90 to £2.34. Previously this would have been reduced to 40p so that it wouldn’t be wasted and I would have gotten a cheap meal.

“There was also a pack of toffee meringues reduced from £3 to £1.68 – again not even a 50 percent reduction. Previously I could have got this for 20p and treated my kids. Now, these products are binned.”

When I contacted Asda’s press office for comment on their new food reduction policy, their senior press officer, Elliott Lancaster, told me: “It isn’t true that food is no longer reduced below £1. There are plenty of products in our stores that are marked down below £1.

“Asda has a comprehensive back of store donation scheme in place and since 2013, has been working with redistribution charity FareShare.” Unfortunately, no comment was made about the new food reduction policy.

Ewan Kelly, the store manager at Lidl in Stevenston, says his store reduces food close to its use-by date between 5-6pm, with chilled food reduced between 6-8pm. Any food over £1 is reduced to 70p, and any food under £1 is reduced to 20p. The only exception to this is bread, which is reduced to 20p regardless of the original selling price.

Rather than waste packs of damaged fruit or vegetables, Lidl removes the damaged item and then sells the remainder for £1.50 for a 5kg bag.

On top of this, Lidl run their ‘Too Good To Waste’ programme, where they donate any leftover food to local food banks – twice a week to the Church of Nazarene food bank and twice a week to the Lochwinnoch Food Committee.

One of our service users commended Lidl, saying: “Lidl seem to have four types of reductions – £3, £2, 70p and 20p, depending on the original selling price of the food.

“But as opposed to Asda and Morrisons – who, in my opinion, are trying to make money from poor people – Lidl did not change their food reduction policy. It’s still the same as it was last year before fuel prices rose and you can still get good bargains there.”

Next, I visited Tesco in Saltcoats to ask what their policy was for food reductions, but they refused to comment. Despite emailing their press office for a comment, we still have not received one.

One of our service users said: “Tesco give out fresh food, which is expiring on the day, to community champions, who then distribute this free of charge on the Olio app. It’s the only supermarket that I know of that gives out food completely free of charge.”

Aldi in Saltcoats, on the other hand, confirmed that food nearing its use-by date is reduced two days before by 30 per cent and the day before by 70 per cent – with both reductions taking place between 4pm and 7pm. Any leftover food is then collected and donated to animals at the Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian.

Again, one of our service users spoke highly of Aldi saying: “Aldi don’t seem to have changed their food reduction policy and good discounts can be found there.”

The big question is, why have Asda and Morrisons changed their food reductions policy in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis? Why do they no longer reduce food to pennies? Surely that’s better than wasting it?

Or are they cashing-in on customers desperate for reduced food by selling mystery bags of food that people often don’t want? You decide.

If you would like to know more about the work the Scottish Centre for Personal Safety does and the people we help, please visit our website at www.ScotCPS.org.uk.

In the meantime, stay safe.