As part of its ongoing commitment to food waste reduction, Iceland Foods has redistributed over 3.5 million meals to local communities since January 2022, already surpassing its target to redistribute three million meals by the end of the financial year. Since July 2022, Iceland has accelerated its efforts to fight food waste and redistribute meals, with the help of food sharing app Olio, together Iceland & Olio have reached the milestone of redistributing 1 million meals.
Iceland Foods does not send any unsold food to landfill, instead it aims to put it to good use in the community. In addition to their partnership with Olio, surplus food is offered free of charge to store colleagues, given to local charities, converted into animal feed, or as a last resort, used to produce electricity and compost through anaerobic digestion.
Over the Christmas period, Iceland and Olio worked together to support local communities, as they redistributed over 100 tonnes worth of food – equating to 263,524 meals alone.
In total, so far Iceland has saved up to 1,518 tonnes worth of food – weighing the equivalent to seven blue whales or 125 double decker buses.
Iceland are on track to redistribute over 4 million meals to local communities by the end of the financial year.
Richard Walker, Executive Chairman, Iceland Foods said: “As part of Iceland’s commitment to Doing it Right, we are dedicated to doing our part to fight food waste. We are thankful to be able to work with partners such as Olio to support local communities with food that otherwise would have gone to waste. We have committed to reducing food and drink waste by 50% by 2030, and it is great to see we are on track to achieve our goals, as taking action against food waste remains one of our top priorities.”
Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO of Olio, said: “We couldn’t be prouder to be working alongside Iceland’s 950+ stores to fight food waste and feed communities across the UK – especially while the rising cost of living means so many are going hungry. It’s thanks to partners like Iceland that we’re able to take meaningful action on food waste on such a large scale, and we’re really grateful for their support. We’d love to see more businesses following Iceland’s example and committing to zero edible food waste across their operations.”
Since joining forces Iceland & Olio have donated 594,377 kg worth of edible food, feeding 50,063 families. Not only have Iceland and Olio worked to save food, but worked to a more sustainable economy with 2,190,125kg worth of CO2 emissions saved.
