App prevents more than 8,000 Northampton Tesco items from going to waste

More than 8,000 items from Northampton Tesco stores have been prevented from going to waste in the past year thanks to an app.

Olio allows users to take surplus Tesco items, both food and non-food, home that other organisations are unable to and post it on the app for those nearby or community groups to collect.

Tesco head of communities Claire De Silva said: “Tesco is committed to tackling food waste and we were confident our partnership with Olio would help with that, but its impact has exceeded all our expectations.

“For our partnership to have diverted more than five million surplus meals from going to waste shows the strength of the partnership between our store colleagues and Olio's 'food waste heroes'.”

In August last year, Tesco became the first supermarket to partner with Olio, resulting in more than 3,700 users, called 'food waste heroes' across the UK saving 5.6 million meals nationally.

The partnership builds on Tesco’s existing food surplus donations programme, including its Community Food Connection scheme with FareShare.

That scheme, which has been running since 2016, has provided more than 120 million meals of food to charities and community groups across the UK.

FareShare supports frontline charities and community groups working with children – from summer holiday clubs and breakfast clubs to community kitchens, and groups which supply food parcels to those facing food insecurity.

Olio co-founder Saasha Celestial-One added: “Our partnership with Tesco has been a huge success this year, and we’re incredibly proud to have delivered so many meals that would have otherwise been wasted to communities across the UK. Tesco has been a true pioneer.

“But our work is far from done. We hope this partnership encourages other businesses to follow suit and consider how they can take a more proactive approach to minimising waste and supporting local communities. Just imagine what we could achieve if every business followed their lead.”