• Over 660 Boots stores are signed up to the platform and over 450,000 meals have been distributed to local communities to date*

Boots, the UK’s leading health and beauty retailer, has launched a new partnership programme in its stores to tackle food waste and support local communities.

Following a pilot of almost six months, Boots has rolled out the Food Waste Heroes programme powered by Olio – the food sharing app – to over 660 stores nationwide.

Olio’s platform allows Boots team members in stores to share pre-packaged food nearing its sell-by date with Olio’s Food Waste Heroes to collect and distribute in their local communities.

During the pilot, 30 stores were signed up to the scheme for 25 weeks between July 2023 and January 2024. In this time, 24,490 items or 8,660 kg of edible food was donated, equivalent to 16,850 meals for 1,540 households.*

Following the success of the pilot, Olio has been rolled out to the majority of Boots stores with a food offering. The scheme has already seen over 633,250 items or 233,320 kg of edible food donated, equivalent to 454,580 meals for 29,150 households.*

Candice Smith, Head of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) at Boots, said: “Our pilot with Olio to reduce food waste in our stores was a huge success and we are pleased to have rolled the scheme out more widely to help us have an even bigger impact. Our tie-up with Olio builds on the progress we have already made to reduce food waste, making it even easier for us to ensure any edible surplus food goes directly to people in need within our local communities.”

Saasha Celestial-One, Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of Olio, said: “Our partnership with Boots, one of the UK's best-loved high street retailers, is another powerful step in the right direction to ending food waste. By working with Olio, Boots can make sure all of its edible surplus food gets shared with members of surrounding communities, and it’s also setting a precedent that food waste has no place in the retail sector. Thank you to the entire team at Boots for being such brilliant partners to work with on this, and to all Olio's volunteers –  Food Waste Heroes – who've made our impact to date possible.”

Martin Stead, Store Manager at Boots Huddersfield, said: “This is such a great initiative. Knowing this food, which would have otherwise gone to waste, is getting to those in need makes us feel like we are really making a difference.”

The partnership with Olio is one of the latest schemes Boots has implemented to reduce its environmental impact. In terms of reducing food waste, in recent years Boots has launched initiatives such as extending its ‘reduce to clear’ policy and moved to ordering single sandwich and salad items rather than ordering in multi-item packs.

For more information about the health and beauty retailer’s ‘Bootprint’ and how this will be reduced in the coming years, visit the Boots corporate website.

*According to data provided by Olio.