Marks and Spencer is expanding a food waste scheme that sees old loaves resold as garlic bread. The retailer says it is launching the initiative at another 125 stores in April.
At the end of each day, unsold baguettes and boules – baked in-store daily – are prepared and filled with garlic butter, and then sold as frozen garlic bread from £1, with an extended shelf life of 30 days. The scheme is currently running in 253 stores and launched in 2020 following a trial.
Since then, M&S has sold 2.1m of the repurposed loaves. Two new products are also being launched as the scheme expands - San Francisco Sourdough Garlic Bread, priced £3, and West Country Cheddar and Red Leicester Garlic Cob, also £3, alongside the existing choices of a garlic baguette (£1 for a single pack or £2 per twin pack) and a boule costing £2.50.
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.”
M&S has pledged to halve food waste by 2030, as well as redistribute 100% of its edible surplus by 2025. It says its Nottingham store at the Giltbrook Retail Park has sold the most recycled bread so far.
Catherine David, director of collaboration and change at climate action organisation 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. 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.”
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Last year M&S removed best before dates from over 300 fruit and vegetable products in another bid to tackle waste. It has also partnered with giving platform Neighbourly to donate meals to charities.
