30 March 2023 , 12:07
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Marks and Spencer is expanding a food waste initiative that turns unsold food into frozen garlic bread to 125 more stores.
The supermarket scheme involves getting more use out of surplus baguettes and boules, which are baked fresh in stores.
If these items don’t sell during the day, they get filled with garlic butter and then sold as frozen garlic bread.
M&S says this extends the life of the unsold bread by an additional 30 days.
The scheme is currently live in 253 stores and will be available in 378 shops from this April.
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Since its launch in 2020, M&S has sold 2.1million re-purposed loaves, with prices starting from £1.
The garlic bread starts from £1 (M&S)Two new products will also be available on shelves as part of the expansion.
Shoppers will be able to purchase the San Francisco Sourdough Garlic Bread and West Country Cheddar and Red Leicester Garlic Cob, both priced at £3 each.
M&S has pledged to halve food waste by 2030, as well as redistribute 100% of its edible surplus by 2025.
Andrew Clappen, Technical Director at M&S Food, said: “Our in-store bakers create the freshest, highest quality bread daily for our customers.
“We believe each loaf is too good to waste and our customers agree. By getting creative we’ve found a way to extend shelf life and create delicious products for our customers – at great value too from £1.
“The response has been fantastic and now is the time to roll out to more stores, with more products. We’re determined to keep finding innovative ways to tackle food waste, at source and in-store.
“As well as creating frozen garlic bread, our 25p ripe banana bags are another great initiative proving popular – we’ve sold over half a million since we started them.”
Catherine David, Director of Collaboration and Change at WRAP, said: ”It’s great to see a simple and effective idea grow in this way.
“Bread is the second most wasted food item in UK homes with the equivalent of more than one million loaves binned every day.
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“As a short shelf-life item, bread can also become surplus at the end of trading so giving a second life to a surplus loaf is an excellent way to reduce waste, make our food go further and feed families.”