SIR – We all lead busy lives these days, too busy for many of us. Consequently we seek what shortcuts we can find to make our load lighter.

This includes doing the weekly shop at the supermarket, one more chore sorted. But while gaining in convenience, we lose in other ways.

The amount of waste recently highlighted by Tesco is frankly appalling, especially with folk, particularly pensioners, increasingly forced to choose between ‘eat or heat’.

Some of this is down to the invention of ‘use by/sell by’ dates. Not that long ago people used their common sense when deciding what was safe to eat and didn’t bin perfectly edible grub just because a sticker said so.

And just as importantly, people bought fresh as and when they needed to by nipping to their local shops. Sadly many such shops have been blasted out of existence by the very supermarkets now proving so wasteful and by serried ranks of parking meters. The growing success of farm shops and farmers’ markets show the appetite for fresh local produce, so let’s do our bit by supporting them and our small shops, wherever they still exist.

Jane Collins, UKIP Euro election candidate, Main Road, Newport, New Brough, East Yorkshire