Asda ramps up food waste reduction push as grocery giant expands Too Good To Go partnership in UK

Asda is extending its partnership with Too Good To Go, a surplus food marketplace.

Too Good To Go offers any surplus, but still edible, food to app users in the form of ‘Surprise Bags’ for them to purchase from local retailers.

The digital platform will now be available to use across nearly 1,000 sites, including Asda supermarket and Asda Express stores, as well as foodservice sites located in Asda stores such as LEON, Greggs, Sbarro and Subway.

Customers will be able to purchase surplus stock at a fraction of its original price via the Too Good To Go app. As part of a Surprise Bag, a variety of food items will be available, including chilled items, ready meals, food to go, prepared fruit or salads, bakery products, or produce with use-by dates such as dairy, meat, fish or poultry.

Surprise Bags from Asda Supermarkets will be available for £3.30 and will include minimum £9 worth of goods. Bags from Asda Express, LEON, Greggs, Sbarro and Subway will also be available. The bags will vary in price depending on the contents, but could include breakfast items, lunch, and dinner food, and also a cakes and pastries bag.

The roll-out follows a trial across a number of Asda’s supermarkets, convenience stores and foodservice sites. Since forming the original partnership with Too Good To Go in 2021 through the former EG Group convenience sites, over 2,000,000 kilograms of perfectly good food has been saved from going to waste.

Sam Dickson, Asda Vice President for Commercial Strategy, Operations & Own Brand, says: “We’re delighted to be bringing Too Good To Go to more sites across our estate and our food service partners, as we remain committed to reducing food waste through innovative solutions.’

“We’ve already seen great uptake from customers using Too Good To Go, and experienced the impact it can make towards reducing food waste.”

“Alongside our existing food waste reduction partners, Too Good To Go will play an important role in continuing the progress we’ve made to date in minimising waste and supporting customers, communities and charities.”

Sophie Trueman, Country Director at Too Good To Go UK and Ireland adds: “Our team is absolutely thrilled to be rolling out our partnership with Asda, helping to combat food waste and provide great value to customers.”

“At Too Good To Go we believe that saving food from going to waste is a win-win-win - businesses can recover the sunk cost of would-be wasted food, consumers can get good food for less, and with one simple action, we’re collectively doing something great for the planet by stopping that food from ending up in landfill.”

The addition of Too Good To Go to Asda’s partnership pool follows the expansion of its ‘back of store’ food donation scheme in June, which saw the retailer enter into a new three-way partnership with long-standing food redistribution charity FareShare and local food sharing app Olio.

The addition of Olio as a food redistribution partner has seen over 680 donation slots added to Asda’s back of store donation scheme, while it has continued its support of the food charity FareShare and its network of over 8,500 charities and community.

2024 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

Green retail is a key focus area for the sixth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards, which is now open for entries.

The awards, sponsored by CADS, 3D Cloud, Retail Technology Show 2025, and Business France, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

It’s free to enter and you can do so across multiple categories.

Key 2024 dates

Friday, 25th October: Award entry deadline 

Tuesday, 29th October: 2024 shortlist revealed

30th October-6th November: Judging days

Thursday, 21st November: Winners announced at the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, to be held at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London.