Environment Minister visits food waste project at Booths

The independent retailer Booths announces that it is rolling out its partnership across their 27 stores with Too Good To Go, the social impact company behind the world’s number one marketplace for surplus food. The announcement is made as Robbie Moore, MP for Keighley and Parliamentary Under-Secretary for DEFRA meets with the Too Good To Go team at Booths Ilkley in support of the initiative.    

It is estimated that 40 per cent of all food produced is wasted each year (WWF, 2021). Food waste accounts for 10 per cent of all human-caused GHG emissions worldwide, and fighting food waste is the number one solution to solve the climate crisis, by limiting the temperature rise to just 2˚C by 2100 (Project Drawdown).Food waste has an annual cost of $2.6trn to the global economy and an annual cost to the UK economy of £12.8bn. The Too Good To Go partnership with Booths helps to address food waste and enables shoppers access quality food and drink at reduced prices.

That’s why fighting food waste is named as the number one solution to solving the climate crisis.

Following an initial 2-month trial, the partnership has already saved 7,350 meals from the bin. 93.8 per cent of all Booths Surprise Bags listed on Too Good To Go were purchased with a solid 4.04/5 customer satisfaction score. This two-month pilot programme helped to avoid 18 tonnes of CO2e emissions, the equivalent of 83 flights from London to Berlin.

The process of saving food from the bin is simple and fast. Every day, colleagues check the shelves looking for items approaching their best-before date. Instead of letting them go to waste, they simply adjust supply up or down on the Too Good To Go Marketplace according to daily surplus and prepare Surprise Bags with a mix of items at a reduced price. Booths shoppers simply have to download the free Too Good To Go App, search for the nearest Booths store in their area; reserve the desired number of Surprise Bags, and pick them up at a preset time of the day.

Nigel Murray, Managing Director at Booths said, “Managing and reducing food waste is a critical issue, and one we all have a part to play, both from a business perspective and within our own homes. We must all respect food, make the most of leftover produce and encourage good kitchen thrift. The Too Good To Go partnership helps enable Booths to reduce food waste while offering customers the chance to pick up great food and drink at a greatly reduced price.”   

Jamie Crummie, co-founder of Too Good To Go, added: “Our team is absolutely thrilled to be partnering with Booths. At Too Good To Go, our mission is to empower and inspire everyone to fight food waste together and we’re delighted to help Booths to be a force for good, while doing good for businesses and consumers alike." 

Environment Minister Robbie Moore, who was present at the launch event in support of the initiative, said: “It’s terrible to see good food go to waste when it should be on people’s plates. That’s why I fully support partnerships between businesses like this one, which help to break down the barriers to surplus food redistribution.

“Industry-led initiatives can make a real difference on food waste - and are complemented by Government support for the redistribution sector, which has received nearly £13m of Defra funding since 2018. In 2022, the equivalent of more than 404 million meals in surplus food was redistributed back on tables instead of ending up in the bin, thanks to the continued hard work of everyone involved in the sector, underpinned by Defra funding.”