Deeside based Iceland to give away food on last day of shelf life to online customers free

Deeside based supermarket chain Iceland is to give food products on the last day of their shelf life away for free to online customers in an effort to reduce waste.

Iceland expects the new initiative could see more than 1.3 million items given free to customers over the year, equaling around £500,000 in retail value.

All food items ordered and delivered by Iceland have previously had a shelf life of at least two days.

A trial of the ‘Free on Last Day of Life’ scheme was launched in 40 of Iceland’s stores this summer and saw more than 17,000 items given away for free.

Customers received an average refund of £1.58 given per order and following the trial’s success, it has now been rolled out across all 1,000 of the supermarket’s sites.

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.

The scheme applies to all chilled, fresh, cakes, bread and morning goods.

Richard Walker, Managing Director at Iceland Foods, 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.”

“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.”