Staff at a Royston supermarket with a community conscience are calling out to local charity groups that serve hot nosh to collect free good quality food that would otherwise go to waste.

Perfectly good produce that is in a split packet or just past its sell-by date is up for grabs from the Baldock Street branch of Morrisons.

Store manager Ben Picton said: “It’s good quality food. We want to put it to good use for the benefit of the people of Royston, and their friends and family. We’ve just wasted about three packets of stewing steak that had gone past its sell by date. It was perfectly usable.”

The food must go to a community organisation that serves food itself and not a foodbank, as by the time it is handed out it may not be fit to eat.

Store community champion Claire Pettifer said: “It’s important for us to get involved in the community.

“People know us and regularly come in for a chat.”