THE DOLPHIN Shopping Centre in Poole is the latest location in the Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch area to put in a community fridge.

Two fridge freezers have been installed in the Eco Hub to help reduce the high levels of food waste locally, allowing shoppers to drop off good but unwanted food stuffs and help themselves to items inside.

This comes as Townsend, Boscombe and West Howe have also recently opened their own community fridges.

John Grinnell, centre manager at the Dolphin Shopping Centre, said: “We’re delighted to have introduced community fridge freezers to the centre; it’s something we’ve been working on for a while. We want to enable both businesses and individuals to waste less through the sharing of good quality food that’s within its use-by date.

“Every year in the UK, approximately 15 million tonnes of food and drink is thrown away and nearly half of this is perfectly good to eat. We are looking to make small steps along the way in order to address this staggering statistic.”

Shoppers that wish to drop off unwanted food rather than throwing it away, can also leave their items in the fridge freezers. This will be particularly useful for those going on holiday or registered food businesses that simply have cooked too much to sell.

The fridge will not accept raw meat, fish or eggs, or cooked rice. Individuals can provide fruit, vegetables, bakery products that do not contain cream, non-dairy drinks and non-perishables, such as tins and pasta. This is due to environmental health reasons. Registered food businesses can also provide cooked food.

Full instructions and a disclaimer for the community fridge freezers are available to view in the Eco Hub. Visit www.dolphinshoppingcentre.co.uk for further information.