The proposal is contained in a major food policy review by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, published yesterday.
The government wants retailers to phase out bogofs on "short life, perishable food items" to help meet a target to reduce food waste between 2010 and 2015.
It also wants them to make sure consumers have an "appropriate range of pack/portion sizes" to choose from.
The waste watchdog, Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap), claims food waste costs the average household £420 per year.
Wrap is currently negotiating terms for the 2010-2015 agreement with the food and drink industry.
The target is to deliver savings of more than £370m to UK consumers and reduce CO2 emissions by almost 700,000 tonnes (claimed to be equivalent to taking 220,000 cars off the road for a year).
Wrap's current voluntary agreement with the food and drink industry has a target of reducing the amount of food wasted by households by 155,000 tonnes by 2010.
The initiative is also likely to see further investment in raising consumer awareness through the ' campaign, which was launched in November 2007 and relaunched in April this year.