Booths has redistributed 100,000 meals through its partnership with food waste app Too Good To Go.
The milestone, which Booths announced this week, means the supermarket has saved the equivalent of 270 tonnes of CO2 emissions by preventing food going to landfill since launching the initiative in February 2024.
Booths store colleagues collect unsold but still edible food into Surprise Bags at the end of each day. The £5 bags, which Booths claims are equivalent to around £15 worth of either meat, fish, baked and chilled food, can be reserved by customers via the Too Good To Go app and collected from their local store that day.
The supermarket – which also operates its own vertically integrated manufacturing arm and in-store cafés – said the carbon emissions saving was equivalent to the cost of producing 11,000kg of cheese or of making 20.7 million cups of tea, if all of the redistributed food had been eaten.
Following a short trial in three stores in November 2023, Booths revealed the initiative had helped the business reduce its overall levels of food waste and the cost of handling food waste. Customers had also responded positively, the supermarket said.
“At Booths we want all our food to be savoured and enjoyed, and our partnership with Too Good To Go has saved over 100,000 meals from being wasted,” said Booths retail change manager Jonathan Roskell, who leads the initiative.
“That’s helped save food from landfill and enabled customers to access some great produce at reduced prices. But we don’t stop there – we’ve made simple changes to how we do business to help reduce food waste.”
Booths had begun to sell more loose produce lines of fresh fruit and vegetables, which had enabled customers to buy the amount they need. In May, it began trialling a new range of garlic bread made from unsold loaves from its in-store bakeries.
“We value and respect the great food we sell, so we’re working hard to ensure nothing is wasted,” Roskell added.
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Booths is one of a number of supermarkets to partner with Too Good To Go, alongside Morrisons – which reached its own three-million-bags milestone in May – Asda, Aldi, Spar and regional Co-ops.
Greggs, Pret a Manger, Costa Coffee and a swathe of independent retailers also use the app as a way to reduce food waste and cut down on excess stock.
Too Good To Go has been enhancing its offer in a bid to attract more retailers to its platform. In January 2024, it relaunched its platform with a new AI-powered solution which helps retailers draw more margin from their close-to-expiry food.
The platform provides store staff with a more detailed breakdown of their full inventory of near-expiry food, and recommends exactly how it should be discounted based on its remaining shelf life.
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