Waitrose has issued an apology after staff at the newly-refurbished Surbiton store threw away hundreds of pounds worth of food.

The Claremont Road branch had a fridge and freezer breakdown on Saturday, September 26, on the day of the Surbiton Festival and shoppers said staff told them meat, fish, cheese, milk, butter and other refrigerated items would be destroyed.

One shopper estimated as much as £50,000-worth of food was binned, but a Waitrose spokesman said the amount was exaggerated.

Tim Harrison, who visited the store at about 2.45pm, said shoppers were left angry and baffled at the sheer waste, all just 16 days after a major internal rebuilding project – which itself has caused discontent among some shoppers.

Staff set up a barricade of shopping trolleys to stop anyone entering the three affected aisles, with employees on duty to prevent anyone squeezing past to pick up the items they needed, he claimed.

Mr Harrison said: “Dozens of shoppers were gaping in amazement at all the perfectly good meat, cheese and fish being binned, and muttering about health and safety gone mad. It certainly defied common sense. It could all have been given to old folks’ homes and charities.”

A Waitrose spokesman said the company would never take any risk with food, forcing it to throw an estimated five percent of the stock away.

She said: “I cannot give you a value for this but would say your estimate is very inaccurate and exaggerated.

“We would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused and are investigating the cause of the equipment breakdown as a matter of urgency.”

Swift action by staff to close the aisles had saved the vast majority of stock by moving it back into chillers and freezers, she said.

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