Calls for supermarket ban on plastic wrap for fresh produce

Supermarkets should be banned from selling fresh produce such as bananas, apples and potatoes in plastic packaging so we can go back to shopping "like our nan", according to the anti-waste charity Wrap.

- Zoe Wood

It is calling for the government to ban packaging on 21 fruit and vegetables sold in supermarkets, including salad tomatoes, carrots and avocados, by 2030. After weighing up other options - including new taxes or subsidies - Wrap said a government ban would be the most effective way to break a cycle that contributes to UK households throwing away 100bn pieces of plastic packaging a year and results in huge food waste.

Faced with the same plastic problem, other countries such as France have already passed laws banning packaging on many fresh products.

Harriet Lamb, Wrap's chief executive, said "this will be hard" for British shoppers schooled to buy fruit and veg in packets, adding that any ban would be "one of the biggest changes in the retail landscape in a while".