Iceland is giving away free food to shoppers in an effort to prevent waste on products nearing expiry.
The supermarket says its ‘Free on Last Day of Life’ initiative could see more than 1.3 million items – worth £500,000 a year – given to Iceland customers without charge, while cutting food waste significantly.
The launch, across all 1,000 of the supermarket’s sites, follows a successful small-scale trial in 40 stores, which saw more than 17,000 items given away fro are and customers receiving an average refund of £1.58 per order.
The process does not require any additional action by the customer. If an item ordered is the only one left and has the same day date it will be scanned, labelled and placed in the shopping cart as normal.
The customer will be made aware of the free item ahead of delivery and will not be charged the original price.
All chilled, fresh, cakes, bread and morning goods will be included in the scheme.
Iceland Foods managing director, Richard Walker, said: “Reducing food waste is a huge priority for us as we continue to reduce our impact on the environment.
“We know that shelf life plays a big role in the creation of surplus food so we to have find an innovative way to combat this within our stores and via our online shopping.
“Our Free on Last Day of Life scheme not only helps reduce food waste but also supports our customers.
“We know cost is key to many of our shoppers and this new initiative allows us to offer them the opportunity to reduce their weekly shopping bills as well as helping to reduce food waste.”
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