Iceland is now giving away free food to online shoppers

Iceland has announced an initiative to give away food on the last day of their shelf life at no cost to online customers.

In a campaign to reduce food waste, the supermarket's 'Free on Last Day of Life' scheme could reduce as much as 1.3 million items - £500,000 worth of food - from being chucked into landfills.

Online customers previously received food with a shelf life of at least two days.

After a successful trial in 40 shops, 'Free on Last Day of Life' is set to launch across 1,000 Iceland locations.

A total of 17,000 free items were given away with customers receiving an average refund of £1.58 per order.

The process does not require any additional action by the customer. If an item ordered is the only one left and has the same day date it will be scanned, labelled and placed in the shopping cart as normal.

The customer will be made aware of the free item ahead of delivery and will not be charged the original price.

All chilled, fresh, cakes, bread and morning goods will be included in the scheme.

Iceland Foods managing director, Richard Walker, said: "Reducing food waste is a huge priority for us as we continue to reduce our impact on the environment.

"We know that shelf life plays a big role in the creation of surplus food so we to have find an innovative way to combat this within our stores and via our online shopping."

"Our Free on Last Day of Life scheme not only helps reduce food waste but also supports our customers.

"We know cost is key to many of our shoppers and this new initiative allows us to offer them the opportunity to reduce their weekly shopping bills as well as helping to reduce food waste."