POSH bakers Gail’s is accused of shameful food waste by dumping binloads of expensive sarnies every day.
The chain does not use food fridges so shops have to chuck out any unsold stock every few hours — despite claiming it has nearly zero food waste.
The swanky store, which is popular with celebs and influencers and has some 130 UK outlets, claims cooling food “affects taste and texture”.
Instead, it keeps sandwiches and sweet treats behind a pane of glass on sleek countertops at room temperature.
Food safety concerns and the company’s “fresh” mantra mean that items such as pastrami, parmesan chicken and salami buns end up in the bin, a whistle-blower told The Sun.
Our source, a woman in her 20s who has worked in a London branch for 12 months, said: “It really upsets me, they are complete hypocrites.
“It’s not just about harming the planet, which is obviously awful, but there are homeless shelters that could use the food and so much is going in bins.
“I challenged my manager, saying we should at least give them to the homeless but we’re not allowed to in case they sue us for food poisoning. It’s ridiculous.
“It wouldn’t be difficult to refrigerate the sandwiches.”
The worker said some branches can throw away up to six bin bags full of food on quiet days — enough to feed a family for a week.
Managers at the hedge fund-run business have phones and tablets with the exact time each food is put on display so they know when to remove it.
We watched stores in London, Manchester, Hampshire and Bristol over two days this week and witnessed trays of food including salmon bagels, borekitas and spinach rolls being removed from the open counters and stacked up in the kitchens for disposal.
Despite the obvious daily waste, the store boasts of a “sustainable baking revolution, getting closer to zero food waste, one bite at a time”.
Gail’s does give leftover bread, refrigerated salads, yoghurt and pastries to homeless shelters.
Company bosses are said to not believe in fridges because they “make food taste worse”.
It means dairy and meat products have to be removed every two to four hours and thrown into bin bags.
The shops do use a food recycle app called Too Good To Go, which flogs unsold pasties at a discount, but they cannot sell meat or dairy on it because of the risk of food poisoning.
But other stores on the app, including rivals Pret A Manger and Starbucks, do offer meat and dairy items because they are kept cool while on display.
Last night, a Gail’s spokeswoman accepted they did toss out unsold meat, dairy and fish products, but insisted it was less than six bags per day.
They added: “Over the past year, we have donated 900,000 food items to charities, redistributing surplus bread and pastries to local communities.”
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