M&S to roll out garlic bread made from surplus baguettes

Unsold fresh bread is being given a second chance to feed customers - as garlic bread - thanks to a new initative set for rollout at Marks & Spencer food outlets.

Baguettes and boules loaves that would once have been consigned to the bin at the end of trading in M&S stores are instead now set to be filled with garlic butter and given a 30-day shelf life, the retailer announced yesterday.

Following a successful trial in eight shops, the scheme is being rolled out to 200 M&S food stores, with the 'waste' garlic baguettes priced at £1, or £1.80 for a twin pack, and £2 for the garlic boule. 

"Our customers love the freshness and quality of our in-store bakery products, but their short shelf-life means it can be a challenging area for waste," explained M&S Food's director of technology, Paul Willgoss. "While we've made great progress in better predicting daily bakery demand and accelerating our charity redistribution, we've been looking at how we can innovate our processes to ensure we continually prevent waste."

M&S is also using 100 per cent widely-recycled packaging for the new garlic bread products. The new packaging is made from translucent paper, or paper with a small plastic window, and will being used for every item in M&S's in-store bakery, the retailer said, as it ramps up its efforts to make all of its packaging widely recycled by 2022.

The initiative, which forms part of the company's goal to cut food waste in half by 2020, was welcomed by David Moon, head of business collaboration at anti-waste charity WRAP. "Bread is the second most wasted food item in the home, with around one million loaves thrown away every day," he said. "As a short shelf-life item, bread can also become surplus at the end of trading. This initiative from M&S is a simple solution to a real problem that turns a surplus item into a brand-new product to be enjoyed anew, and stops food being wasted."

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Send to  

• Topics
• BusinessGreen
• Waste
• M&S Food
• garlic bread
• food waste
• Retail
• Marks & Spencer