The campaign, which was the 50th to be held in Portugal, was substantially more productive than May when 200 fewer tonnes were collected, but down about 100 tonnes on last November’s total.

The foods collected will now be distributed to 2,700 different institutions covering more than 420,000 people living below the breadline.

This weekend’s campaign was conducted with the help of 42,000 volunteers at 2,000 supermarkets across the country.