Businesses should be more careful about wasting food at a time when families are struggling with their finances, London Mayor Boris Johnson has said.
He said enough food to fill nearly 12,000 double-decker buses is thrown away every year in the capital.
He now wants businesses to find ways of reducing the amount of waste by redistributing unwanted food that is still edible to charities such as FareShare or FoodCycle.
Mr Johnson said: "Throwing away mountains of perfectly edible food is crazy at a time when all Londoners are feeling the pinch.
"I want to do all I can to help people to cut waste, save cash by doing so and improve our great city."
He is due to launch a Feeding The 5,000 event in Trafalgar Square with businesses such as Waitrose, the New Covent Garden Market and Innocent Drinks already signed up to the project.