Lidl has scaled up a partnership with surplus food sharing app Olio from 20 to 200 stores, as it prepares for a national rollout this year.
Olio volunteers can collect surplus from stores including meat, fish, poultry and bakery items. They then list it on the app, which allows local users to pick it up for free.
Lidl began working with Olio in May, on top of its efforts with food redistribution organisation Neighbourly, which connects stores across the country to a network of local charities.
Lidl said its work so far with Olio had saved around 1,200kg of food from going to waste a week. It estimated more than 5,000 tonnes could be saved annually in a national rollout, providing 11.9 million meals.
The discounter has target of reducing food waste by 70% by the end of its 2030 financial year, against a 2016 baseline.
“With our sights set on a nationwide rollout by the end of this year, this expanding partnership will soon empower communities to rescue up to nearly 12 million meals every single year,” said Lidl GB corporate affairs director Georgina Hall.
“This collaboration will make a huge impact on the lives of the most vulnerable in our communities everywhere.”
Lidl began working with Olio after holding discussions with a social media campaigner who had filmed in-date food thrown in bins at the back of its stores.
The social media waste activist, who uses the handle Food_waste_inspector, continues to regularly post videos of apparently good food going to waste in supermarket bins.
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