M&S removes earlier dates from a range of fresh produce to help reduce in-store and home food waste.
Most pre-dates will be removed from the labeling of more than 300 fruit and vegetable products – 85% of M&S’s product offering – including commonly wasted items apples, potatoes and broccoli. Dates will be replaced with a new code that M&S store colleagues will use to ensure freshness and quality.
The switch, which is being launched across all M&S UK stores this week, is designed to encourage customers to discard less edible foods at home using their judgment.
WRAP research shows that around 6.6 million tonnes of food is dumped by British households a year.
As part of its Plan A sustainable roadmap, M&S has pledged to halve food waste by 2030, with 100% of food surplus being redistributed by 2025.
In addition to reducing the number of best pre-dates, the retailer is taking several steps to reduce food waste and helping its 30 million customers and 70,000 colleagues do the same, including:
Partnership with Neighbourly: Donating more than 44 million meals to charities by partnering with Neighbourly since 2015, with shop teams working closely with their local communities to ensure edible surplus is redistributed.
25p Banana Bag Scheme: Launching the 25p Banana Bags scheme last year, with customers able to purchase a minimum of three ready-to-eat bananas along with two delicious recipes.
Create frozen garlic bread from unsold bakery products: More than 200 M&S stores use unsold baguettes and balls – which are baked fresh every day – to create frozen garlic bread, preparing them and adding garlic butter at the end of each day.
Sparking Change National Challenge: Helping customers reduce food waste by Love your leftover recipes, such as blueberry and banana pancakes, as well as expert tips on group cooking and food preservation to make it last longer.
Reducing food waste is extremely important for families – M & S’s latest Family Matters Index has revealed that 72% of British families are taking steps to reduce household waste, with those in Northern Ireland the most determined (77%). More than half (55%) of families say it’s important that the stores they buy from make it easier for them to make more sustainable choices.
Andrew Clappen, Director of Food Technology, said: “We are committed to tackling food waste – our teams and suppliers work hard to deliver fresh, delicious, responsibly sourced produce with great value and we must do everything possible to ensure none of it is discarded. To do that, we need to be innovative and ambitious – eliminating deadlines where to safely do so, trying new ways to sell our products and galvanizing our customers to be creative with leftovers and accept change.
“The other side of the challenge is to make sure anything edible we don’t sell reaches those who need it most. By partnering with Neighborly since 2015, we’ve made sure more than 44 million meals are redistributed to local communities. Our promise, as we pursue our goal of halving food waste, is to continue to seek solutions as we maintain the standards and value our customers expect. ”
