Panic buyers have put the nation to shame by hoarding more than £1billion of groceries over the past three weeks.
The supermarket shelf-strippers are buying 50% more food than they need.
Yesterday the stockpilers were told to start eating it.
Environment Secretary George Eustice implored them to think of others and insisted: “There’s more than enough food to go around.”
British Retail Consortium boss Helen Dickinson said: “The issue is around people and lorries getting that food on to our shelves, which is why we’ve seen shortages.”
She said of the £1billion glut: “We should make sure we eat some of it.”
NHS Medical Director Prof Stephen Powis said hospital staff had wept in shops after a long shift where shelves were empty.
He said: “We should all be ashamed. These are the very people we will all need to look after perhaps us or our loved ones in the weeks ahead.”
One nurse who was saving lives in intensive care then found the supermarket shelves bare was critical care nurse Dawn Bilbrough, 51, who had done a 48-hour shift.
Dawn, who works in Leeds, West Yorks, made a heartbreaking video begging hoarders to be considerate.
Tearful Dawn said: “I’ve just come out of the supermarket – there’s no fruit and veg. I had a little cry in there. I just wanted to get some stuff in for the next 48 hours.
“I just don’t know how I’m supposed to stay healthy.
“Those people who are just stripping the shelves of basic foods – you need to stop it because it’s people like me that are going to be looking after you when you are at your lowest. Just stop it. Please.” Tesco has now said the hour before official opening every Sunday will be a shopping slot exclusively for NHS staff, with ID checks to keep out hoarders.
Dawn added: “I understand the fear but we are not a Third World country. People need to have a bit of awareness and remember other people actually need to survive this.”
Ms Dickinson said shops are used to boosting supplies at Christmas with four months to prepare but the crisis had given them only two weeks.
Panic buying is making staff worry about going to work for fear of being abused or assaulted by customers.
At one Tesco branch in Isleworth, West London, staff were attacked by customers furious about shortages.
A woman said they face hours of verbal abuse from customers often angered by restrictions on items being sold.
The worker said: “Some are okay but others explode and go mad.
“Yesterday a manager had a shopping trolley thrown at him. The girls are coming off the tills crying.” A supermarket worker in Brighton called Barbara said that the health of low-paid staff is being put at greater danger.
She said: “I feel I am at extreme risk. We are constantly exposed to everything. There is no protection for workers on the till.
“There is no protective gear, no shielding, no one organising the queues, it’s total mayhem.”
Usdaw, Britain’s biggest shopworkers’ union, called for better protection for staff worried about the catching the deadly bug. It said an average of 400 shopworkers were attacked every day even before the crisis and it suspects the rate has increased.
Usdaw spokesman David Williams said: “We are calling for supermarkets to make sure staff are secure.
“If the police need to go into stores it will be a real shame to see them diverted away from real emergencies just because shoppers can’t keep their cool.”
Shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard said ministers had been too slow to warn off the panic buyers.
He said: “Too often during this crisis the Government has been behind the curve and behind other countries.”
He added: “We need plans that will be suitable for the weeks to come, not the week we have just been through.”
Stores including Tesco, Asda, Aldi and Lidl are now hiring thousands of staff to meet the unprecedented demand.
Asda said it will be donating £5million to foodbanks and charities to provide four million meals to those living in poverty.
Mr Eustice was asked to rule out rationing or ration books but said only it was up to supermarkets to decide limits on what shoppers can buy.
Meanwhile the Lib Dems are tabling Commons amendments this week to boost statutory sick pay from £94.25 to £220 a week.
