Iceland Foods is to begin using AI to calculate the markdowns on yellow label items and, it hopes, reduce the amount of food wasted from stores.
The supermarket is set to roll out AI-powered platform WasteInsight, developed by the company Retail Insight. The technology will not only save store staff time, but crucially “protect margins” on products, by ensuring that close to expiry lines are identified more quickly.
Rather than having stores manually track and calculate the rate of discount, the system will monitor Iceland’s stock levels and notify workers when items are close to expiry.
It will then calculate the rate of discount that reflects the length of time left on the product’s life, as well as the type of product and how likely it is to sell.
Take a four pint bottle of milk for example. Currently the discount applied might be different across two separate Iceland stores, based on different attributes like the size of the store’s range, local demographics and the inventory on hand.
The new platform is plugged into Iceland’s stock management system and other store data, so will be able to calculate an effective mark down for the product that reflects all of these attributes.
In certain cases, the platform can also identify instances where it is better to donate products straight to food donation charities, rather than them potentially expiring on shelves, which should improve Iceland’s food waste, it claimed.
The supermarket should also benefit in the long term from better forecasting as a result, it added.
“Retailers have access to more operational data than ever before, but data only creates value when it enables better decisions,” said Martin Rigby, Retail Insight EMEA general manager.
“The opportunity is to move from reporting what has already happened to identifying where action is needed before waste occurs,” he added.
WasteInsight has also been used by Southern, Scotmid and East of England Co-op, Home Bargains as well as M&S and BP among others.
“We are delighted to be working with Iceland to support its continued focus on reducing food waste. By combining AI with operational insight, WasteInsight helps surface the products and actions that matter most, enabling colleagues to intervene earlier and with greater confidence,” Rigby said.
Retailers increasingly use of AI to improve yellow label items
It’s not the first time that Iceland has sought to improve its approach to yellow label items. In August 2025, it expanded its partnership with app the deals app Gander to provide shoppers with a list of its yellow label items from nearly 1,000 stores in real time.
“Reducing food waste remains an important priority for Iceland,” said Iceland Foods stores director Steve Shirley. “We are continually looking at ways to improve how we use operational data to support our colleagues in making faster, better-informed decisions in stores.
“Working with Retail Insight will help us explore how AI-driven operational intelligence can support our waste reduction objectives while improving consistency across our store operations,” Shirley said.
Like other supermarkets, Iceland has also been ramping up its use of AI to bring down costs in store, or free up store staff.
For example, Iceland revealed last month that it has been able to reduce shrinkage by 80% following the rollout of AI crime detection technology to its CCTV system in a partnership with SAI.
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