Preston Marks and Spencer: retailer will sell posh handmade garlic bread using unsold fresh baguettes for just £1

Preston’s Marks and Spencer store will be running an expanded scheme aimed at cutting food waste. The city’s Deepdale store is joining the initiative this month.

At the end of each day, unsold baguettes and boules – baked in-store daily – are prepared and filled with garlic butter, and then sold as frozen garlic bread from £1, with an extended shelf life of 30 days. The scheme is currently live in 251 stores and launched in 2020 following a successful trial. Since then, M&S has sold 2.1million of the re-purposed loaves.

Due to its popularity, the scheme is now being extended to local store, M&S Preston Deepdale - and two new products will also be available. Shoppers will now have the choice of San Francisco Sourdough Garlic Bread (£3) and West Country Cheddar and Red Leicester Garlic Cob (£3), alongside the existing choices of a Garlic Baguette (£1 single pack or £2 twin packs) and a boule (£2.50). The transformed good are then available to buy the following day from the shop floor.

Nikita Calvert, Store Manager at M&S Preston Deepdale, said: “Our in-store bakers create the freshest, highest quality bread daily for our customers. We believe each loaf is too good to waste and our customers agree. By getting creative we’ve found a way to extend shelf life and create delicious products for our customers – at great value too, from £1. We’re determined to keep finding innovative ways to tackle food waste in-store and look forward to playing our part in reducing food waste for M&S stores across the country.”

M&S has pledged to halve food waste by 2030, as well as redistribute 100% of its edible surplus by 2025, as part of its Plan A sustainability roadmap.

Catherine David, Director of Collaboration and Change at WRAP, said: “It’s great to see a simple and effective idea grow in this way. Bread is the second most wasted food item in UK homes with the equivalent of more than one million loaves binned every day.”