Southern Co-op stores starts Too Good to Go food trial

A dozen Southern Co-op stores have joined a trial of using the Too Good to Go food app to help sell food near its expiry date that would otherwise go to waste.

The trial, which launched on Monday (31), means that Magic Bags of food are available from 12 Southern Co-op stores for just a third of the cost at £3.29 – with an original value of £10 or more.

A number of Magic Bags will be available for people to buy via the Too Good To Go app every day. Once purchased, the bags will be ready to collect from the chosen store between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.

Southern Co-op’s Magic Bags reportedly will contain a range of products from sandwiches, pizza, fruits, dairy, baked goods or desserts.

They will be available at the Co-operative Food stores in Addlestone’s Church Road, Addlestone’s New Haw Road, Banstead’s Nork Way, Bromley’s Homesdale Road, Chertsey’s Fordwater Road, Chislehurst’s White Horse Hill, Ealing’s Uxbridge Road, Shirley’s Orchard Way, Sidcup’s The Oval, Staines’s Laleham Road, West Ewell’s Ruxley Lane, and Wimbledon’s Ridgway.

“We’ve been fighting food waste for some time, making sure our waste is dealt with responsibly and none of it goes to landfill. But now we need to move on to the next stage – trying to keep as much food as possible in the food chain and save as many meals as we can. Magic Bags have flown off the shelves at many retailers and we hope we can replicate that success in our new trial,” said Simon Eastwood, Southern Co-op’s Chief Operating Officer for Retail.

The news comes weeks after it was announced that Southern Co-op will be selling products past their ‘best before’ date, saying the date relates to the quality, rather than the safety, of the product. The move was brought to reduce food wastage.

Under the initiative, it was announced that fresh products will be sold up to two days after their ‘best before’ date and ambient products will be sold up to seven days after their ‘best before’ date.