M&S Food partners with Too Good To Go, preventing food waste

• M&S Food is launching with Too Good to Go, bringing surplus bakery products to customers through the Too Good To Go app for the first time in ‘Surprise Bags’
• Bakery products including pastries, cookies and bread will be available to customers for just £3.80 per bag, to a minimum value of £10.20 in 354 stores across the UK and Ireland
• The partnership lands hot on the heels of M&S announcing it has donated over 130million meals to charities from redistributing over 57,000 tonnes of surplus food from its stores
• M&S is committed to halving food waste by 2030 and today’s partnership is the latest route of a number which redistribute surplus food

From yesterday (14th September), over 350 M&S Food stores will offer Too Good To Go Surprise Bags made up of surplus bakery products, giving customers the chance to collect quality food at a reduced price at the end of the day directly from in store bakeries.

Too Good To Go is the world’s largest app for surplus food and the partnership with M&S means customers can now find quality food at a reduced price.

The national launch follows a trial in a select number of stores across the UK and is the latest move in M&S Food’s work to reduce food waste and ensure good food doesn’t go to waste. The Surprise Bags will include bakery treats such as pastries, cookies and bread baked in store.

Each of the Surprise Bags will include three to four bakery products to a minimum retail price of £10.20 for just £3.80. Customers can order their Surprise Bags through the Too Good To Go app and collect them Monday to Saturday, one hour before their local store closes.

The partnership sits alongside M&S’s wider Plan A programme to halve food waste by 2030 and to help edible surplus food find its way to a dinner plate. Just last week, M&S announced that over 130 million meals have been donated from surplus food being redistributed to charities through its partnership with Neighbourly.

In store, M&S repurposes surplus food like bread to make frozen garlic bread and sells bags of bananas that are extra ripe at a reduced price to prevent them from going to waste. M&S uses clear guidance to store food in the right way to prevent waste at home, and store colleagues reduce prices of unsold food before the end of the day to prevent it from going to waste. No food goes to landfill, inedible food that has passed its use by date is sent for anaerobic digestion for renewable energy.

For Too Good To Go, partnerships with retailers such as M&S provide a practical way to help prevent the food waste challenge, by connecting businesses with customers and giving surplus food another chance to be enjoyed.

Lucinda Langton, Head of Sustainability at M&S Food, said: “Too Good To Go is a brilliant example of how we’re turning our commitment to reducing food waste into practical action. By giving customers access to surprise bags of surplus bakery products, we can help ensure more of our food is enjoyed. The response from our trial stores has been outstanding, and this partnership is another positive step towards our goal of halving food waste by 2030.”

Chelsea Kerr, Managing Director at Too Good To Go UK & Ireland, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with M&S to help make their surplus food available to even more customers across the UK and Ireland. Food waste is a huge challenge, but partnerships like this show how simple it can be for businesses and consumers to take action together. By giving food that might otherwise go unsold another chance to be enjoyed, we’re making it easier for people to save good food while also getting great value. M&S is a much-loved brand across the UK, so we’re excited to be working together to make saving food from going to waste a simple and accessible part of everyday life for even more people.”