Each year in the UK, 7 million tonnes of food waste disposed of – despite over half of it still being edible. Yet increasing awareness of the potential use for otherwise neglected foodstuffs has seen businesses developing a CSR strategy to prevent this number from rising.

British-based dairy brand Yeo Valley is one of many working to ensure its edible leftover ingredients do not automatically end up on the refuse pile. Its new yogurt product, ‘Left Yeo-vers’ is comprised of the fruit usually destined to be thrown away after the yogurt production process.

Available in a brand new strawberry and fig flavour, the product uses excess juice from orange and carrots, and surplus figs and strawberries, in its ingredients – it is Yeo Valley’s “Response to the growing problem of food wastage in the UK”.

Its image has been developed brand, design and marketing consultancy Big Fish.

However, the environmental impact of food wastage is not the only impetus for businesses to develop more sustainable product usage policies. With visits to food banks rising to nearly a million over in the period between 2014/15, the need to distribute food more evenly across society is increasingly being highlighted.

As a result, 10p from every pot of Left Yeo-vers sold will also go to UK charity FareShare, which aims to tackle hunger and fight food waste.

British supermarket chain Asda also aims to reduce fruit and vegetable wastage through the launch of its ‘wonky veg’ box, in February 2016. Consisting of fresh produce usually thrown away due to its non-uniform appearance, the box retails for £3.50 – yet another business initiative to reduce waste, while encouraging non-wasteful habits.

With the French government recently passing legislation to ensure all leftover produce is now redistributed to charities and those in need, it seems likely that pressure will mount for sustainable food policies to be integrated into the CSR programmes of UK businesses.

Left-Yeovers are available in select Tesco stores.