M&S Food has partnered with Too Good To Go to sell surplus bakery products through the food waste app across 354 stores in the UK and Ireland.
The national rollout follows a trial in selected stores and will see M&S offer Too Good To Go Surprise Bags containing surplus products from its bakeries. Customers can reserve and pay for the bags through the Too Good To Go app before collecting them from participating stores one hour before closing, Monday to Saturday. Each bag contains three to four bakery products, which could include pastries, cookies and bread, with a minimum retail value of £10.20. Customers pay £3.80 per bag.
The partnership gives M&S another route for redistributing surplus food as it works towards its target of halving food waste by 2030 under its Plan A sustainability programme. M&S recently said it has donated more than 130 million meals through surplus food redistributed to charities in partnership with Neighbourly, involving more than 57,000 tonnes of food.
The retailer also repurposes some surplus products in store, including bread used to make frozen garlic bread, while ripe bananas are sold at reduced prices. M&S said no food goes to landfill, with inedible food that has passed its use-by date sent for anaerobic digestion to produce renewable energy.
Lucinda Langton, Head of Sustainability at M&S Food, said:
“Too Good To Go is a brilliant example of how we’re turning our commitment to reducing food waste into practical action. By giving customers access to surprise bags of surplus bakery products, we can help ensure more of our food is enjoyed. The response from our trial stores has been outstanding, and this partnership is another positive step towards our goal of halving food waste by 2030.”
Chelsea Kerr, Managing Director at Too Good To Go UK & Ireland, said:
“Food waste is a huge challenge, but partnerships like this show how simple it can be for businesses and consumers to take action together. By giving food that might otherwise go unsold another chance to be enjoyed, we’re making it easier for people to save good food while also getting great value. M&S is a much-loved brand across the UK, so we’re excited to be working together to make saving food from going to waste a simple and accessible part of everyday life for even more people.”
The platform says more than 600 million meals have been saved from going to waste since it launched in 2016.
