UK | Over 350 M&S Food stores will offer Too Good To Go Surprise Bags made up of surplus bakery products, giving customers the chance to collect quality food at a reduced price at the end of the day directly from in-store bakeries.
Too Good To Go is the world’s largest app for surplus food and the partnership with M&S means customers can now find quality food at a reduced price.
The launch followed a trial in a select number of stores across the UK and is the latest move in M&S Food’s work to reduce food waste and ensure good food doesn’t go to waste. The Surprise Bags will include bakery treats such as pastries, cookies and bread baked in store.
Each Surprise Bag will include three to four bakery products. Customers can order their Surprise Bags through the Too Good To Go app and collect them Monday to Saturday, one hour before their local store closes.
“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," said Lucinda Langton, Head of Sustainability at M&S Food.
"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.”
The partnership sat alongside M&S’s wider Plan A programme to halve food waste by 2030 and to help edible surplus food find its way to a dinner plate. M&S has also announced that over 130 million meals have been donated from surplus food being redistributed to charities through its partnership with Neighbourly.
In store, M&S repurposes surplus food like bread into frozen garlic bread and sells bags of extra-ripe bananas at a reduced price to prevent them from going to waste.
M&S provides clear guidance on storing food properly to prevent waste at home, and store colleagues reduce prices on unsold food before the end of the day to prevent it from going to waste. No food goes to landfill; inedible food that has passed its use-by date is sent for anaerobic digestion for renewable energy.
“We’re delighted to be partnering with M&S to help make their surplus food available to even more customers across the UK and Ireland. Food waste is a huge challenge, but partnerships like this show how simple it can be for businesses and consumers to take action together," said Chelsea Kerr, Managing Director at Too Good To Go UK & Ireland.
"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.”
For Too Good To Go, partnerships with retailers such as M&S provide a practical way to help prevent the food waste challenge by connecting businesses with customers and giving surplus food another chance to be enjoyed.
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