Redistributing surplus food

In order to help combat the issue of food waste we're working to reduce waste or put as much of it as possible to good use. As a priority, we want our surplus food turned into meals that go to people who need it the most, this means sending surplus food from our stores to our charity food donation partners and the local communities. Where we cannot redistribute food to people in our communities we then look to turning it into animal feed to avoid sending it to anaerobic digestion. Since 2013, none of our food waste has been sent to landfill and in 2024/25 0.617% of our food waste as a percentage of total tonnes handheld was sent to anaerobic digestion.

Redistribution to our charity partners 

We have been donating food to charities and community groups since 1998 to help support our communities have access to food and to reduce waste.

In 2021 we started working with Neighbourly to manage our back of store food donation programme, helping to connect Sainsbury’s stores with local partners and a network of over 17,000 charities, schools and community groups across the UK and Ireland who will redistribute food to those in need.

By matching Sainsbury’s stores with donation partners, Neighbourly ensures that any surplus food gets directed to the people who need it most.

In 2024, to build on the success of our food donation programme, we started a new partnership with Olio, the local food sharing app to enable us to start donating ‘use-by’ dated surplus maximise the amount we give to people and communities

Together, Neighbourly and Olio coordinate a daily collection service from all Sainsbury’s stores, helping to support a wide range of local causes including homeless centres, schools, breakfast clubs, community centres, community fridges, community cafes, night shelters, refuges, churches, and hospices.

In 2024/25, 7,386 tonnes of surplus food was saved from going to waste and 17.6 million meals were delivered to people and communities in need. 

If you are a charity or community group and would like to work with one of our stores to help redistribute food, please get in touch via sainsburys@neighbourly.com.

Supporting colleagues with the tools needed to drive progress  

In Autumn 2024, we launched a regional trial to improve compliance and increase performance around redistribution in our stores by giving stores access to a new food surplus reporting dashboard. This provided a benchmark to aim for and showed relevant data on how individual stores were performing, how they compared with other stores in the region and highlighted opportunities where more could have been donated across eligible food categories.

We updated store procedures and guidance to support colleagues with clear actions on how to donate more surplus food. We highlighted the stores with best-in-class performance to help incentivise improved progress.

At the end of the trial, we saw a significant increase in compliance and have since launched a new company-wide food surplus target to drive an increase in the donation of eligible products by the end of 2025.

Sending surplus produce to animal feed 

Where we can’t donate edible food to charity, we work with UK farms via our partners to turn surplus food into animal feed to avoid anaerobic digestion. We sell the unsold stock to our partners who in turn process this product to make sure it’s free of packaging, unwanted products and chopped where necessary to make the food fit for animals.

In 2013 we began sending surplus bread to be made into animal feed for our suppliers. This has been expanded to now include unsold fruit, vegetables and salad. All of the product that our partners produce for farms is FEMAS assured, meaning it meets all standards and is safe for use in animal feed.