M&S has announced that it is expanding its project to turn unsold fresh bakery loaves into frozen garlic bread to an additional 125 stores this April.
The scheme is currently available in 253 stores and launched in 2020 following a successful trial.
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.
'Too Good To Waste'
"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," said Andrew Clappen, technical director at M&S Food.
“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,” Clappen added.
M&S now says the scheme is not only being extended to more stores but two new products will also be available.
Customers will now have a choice of San Francisco Sourdough Garlic Bread (£3) and West Country Cheddar and Red Leicester Garlic Cob (£3), alongside the existing choices of a Garlic baguette (£1 single pack or £2 twin pack) and a boule (£2.50).
Sustainability Roadmap
M&S has pledged to halve food waste by 2030, as well as redistribute 100% of its edible surplus by 2025, as part of its Plan A sustainability roadmap.
As well as expanding its frozen garlic bread scheme, the retailer is taking other steps to reduce food waste.
For example, it has donated 57 million meals to charities by partnering with Neighbourly since 2015, where store teams work closely with their local communities to ensure edible food surplus is redistributed.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest fresh-produce news. Article by Robert McHugh. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
