Booths turns to garlic bread to cut down food waste

Booths is trialling a new range of frozen garlic bread to reduce the number of fresh loaves wasted at its in-store bakeries.

For the trial – which is set to launch at an initial three Booths stores – unsold fresh loaves will be collected at the end of the day. Store staff then slice and flavour the loaves before freezing them overnight.

The new range is then repackaged and sold as a new frozen garlic bread product. Booths said it had created recipes for a Sourdough Garlic Bread, Ciabatta Loaf Garlic Bread, White Organic Loaf and White Cob Garlic Bread products. A Garlic Bread twin-pack will also be available.

“Despite our best efforts to predict buying patterns, we will have a few loaves of perfect-condition bread left over on our bakery tables,” said Gemma Haye, product development manager.

“While we work with a number of local food banks, it often is not feasible for them to collect a few loaves of leftover bread every day, and many do not have capacity to store frozen bread.”

The trial will launch in Booths stores in Garstang, Knutsford and Ulverston, and will be rolled into all 26 of its supermarkets if successful.

Booths is taking inspiration from a trick commonly deployed by high street bakeries like Gail’s, which regularly repurposes unsold items into new products, including its almond croissant and ‘waste less’ sourdough.

Like other supermarkets, the northern grocer has ramped up its donations to food redistribution charities in order to cut food waste, including through a partnership with Too Good to Go, which launched in February 2024. However, it has been exploring ways to further reduce costs across its supply chain.

“Good kitchen thrift is the backbone of our ‘Good Grocer’ ethos, so we developed some delicious garlic bread recipes that our store colleagues could make, package and freeze on site every day,” Haye said.

“This is a simple and effective way to eliminate food waste and create a new great-tasting convenient product that pairs so well with our existing food lines like lasagne or our pasta ranges,” she added.