Available from this week onwards, the ‘Taste Me, Don’t Waste Me’ boxes are part of the retailer’s efforts to halve food waste across its value chain by 2030 while helping customers access healthy, affordable, and sustainable food.
For £2, shoppers will receive a variety of loose, surplus, fruit and vegetables that would have otherwise gone to waste.
The move comes after Sainsbury’s began removing ‘best before’ dates from more than 100 product lines last year – including pears, onions, tomatoes and citrus fruits – in a move designed to help customers reduce food waste at home. The supermarket said it is now planning to remove the labels from a further 130 products.
Richard Crampton, director of fresh food at Sainsbury’s, said that having successfully piloted the new boxes in a number of stores the supermarket was confident the approach can help customers access nutritious food that is better for them and the planet.
“It’s great to see that shoppers have been enjoying the ‘Taste Me, Don’t Waste Me’ boxes, which is why we’re really pleased to roll out the trial to over 200 supermarkets, helping even more people across the country,” he said. “We believe that everyone deserves to eat well at an affordable price, and we hope this additional support will ensure that good quality food doesn’t go to waste.”
The move is the latest in a string of initiatives from leading supermarkets to try and reduce food waste levels. For example, earlier this month Aldi announced it is to extend its partnership with food waste app Too Good To Go to cover all its 990 UK stores, in a move that should make it easier to stop thousands of tonnes of surplus food going to waste.
